Sound Off
by Ohfortheloveofpete
Summary: Naruto has to face the Sound Four...again.
1. Chapter 1: Return Of The Four

Sound Off

_Hey there! In this story...Naruto's going to have to face off against the Sound Four once again. Oh dear...thankfully, he will have help...though this time it won't be the Sasuke Retrieval Squad...this time we'll be sending out different ninja...heh heh._

_And yes...this takes place after Naruto's Evil Twin II..._

**Chapter 1: Return Of The Four**

As it turned out, Naruto was enjoying his training with Jiraiya. Why do you ask? Because he was progressively becoming stronger...he could now create more copies of himself and could summon Gamabunta more easily.

For some strange reason, up until recently, he never seemed to listen to him...even after he promised him a jar of flies that he had captured himself.

"Why does he have to be so stubborn?" inquired Naruto.

"Yeah...I had a hard time getting him to listen to me back when I was about your age..." answered Jiraiya.

"Really?" asked the genin.

"On the other hand, Tsunade didn't seem to have much of a problem with Katsuyu...all she wanted from her was to beat her in a race..." answered Jiraiya.

"Wouldn't that be easy for her? Slugs move so slow and all..." noted Naruto.

"Yes, I know..." nodded his teacher.

"I'm starting to miss my friends..." noted the genin.

"Don't you want to save Sasuke from Orochimaru?" asked Jiraiya.

"Don't you want to look at pretty girls in swimsuits?" inquired Naruto.

"Um..." answered his teacher.

"I'm just saying that I'm starting to feel homesick..." explained the boy.

"Case in point...but don't procrastinate training for too long...we only have two and a half years before Orochimaru's ready to perform a body transfer again..." warned Jiraiya.

"Yes, godfather!" exclaimed the genin.

As he did so, Jiraiya wondered where he should look for pretty girls.

"Maybe I should check to see if Mei Terumi is in town...I'm sure we'd get along well..." noted the sannin.

Oddly enough, he had heard in the newspaper that Naruto had fallen victim to his evil twin brother as of late...he sure hoped that his training would serve him well in case he ever broke out of prison.

"At least he can't hold a candle to Orochimaru...though I have to admit, most of the villains I've faced never seemed to do things just for personal pleasure like Naruto's evil twin then...ah well." thought Jiraiya to himself.

_Meanwhile..._

Naruto smiled, glad that he was able to take the day off for a change. He was starting to wonder if his friends and family were missing him.

Oddly enough, he kept thinking about his friend Hinata. She always seemed so attached to him...though admittedly that didn't really occur to him until after Konohamaru had once brainwashed her with his ray gun.

"At least one good thing came out of that..." noted Naruto.

Speaking of which, he wondered what Konohamaru was up to. But for now, he decided to have some delicious ramen...why he couldn't stop eating ramen, he wasn't quite sure yet.

"I swear...these noodles taste better and better every single time..." thought the genin.

Nonetheless, he wondered where his friends had hopped off too. Did they all forget he was gone?

Surely some of them had to be around Konoha somewhere.

Suddenly, he got an idea of who to look for.

"I know! Why don't I hang out with my apprentice, Konohamaru?" he thought.

Sure enough, he wasn't hard to find. He was currently trying to create shadow clones of himself...much like Naruto usually did.

"Hi there Naruto!" exclaimed Konohamaru.

"Hey there? Have you been on your best behavior?" inquired Naruto.

"What? Of course I have! What made you say otherwise?" asked the ninja-in-training.

"Well, there was the OOC Gun Incident..." explained the genin.

"That was ages ago!" exclaimed Konohamaru.

"True..." noted the genin.

"I promise you, I'm not going to try anything like that ever again! Besides, Tsunade confiscated my gun..." stated the ninja-in-training.

"Oh, right..." nodded Naruto.

"If you want I could build another one...we could probably test it out on missing-nin and see if they turn over a new leaf..." explained Konohamaru.

"That does sound tempting..." said the genin.

"We could probably even test it out on the ninja-that-must-never-be-named!" exclaimed the genin.

"Sorry, I don't think even that would work on him. Orochimaru is the ninja devil." explained Naruto.

"Don't mention his name! He killed my grandpa!" bellowed Konohamaru.

"Yes, which is why I'm sure you agree with me. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to look for my other friends...for some reason, I'm feeling the strange urge to see Hinata in particular...anyways, see ya!" exclaimed the genin.

"Bye!" answered Konohamaru.

"It was nice to see Konohamaru again..." noted Naruto.

_Meanwhile..._

As it turned out, Naruto was not the only one who had been training as of late. As it turned out, Sakura had been training with Tsunade...she was now fairly adept at healing techniques...and could now plow through boulders like wet tissue paper...not to mention toss them into the sky.

"So, how am I doing so far?" asked Sakura.

"Pretty good, pretty good...I think you've actually earned yourself a break, actually..." answered Tsunade.

Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you said you weren't going to make things easy for me..." questioned the chunin.

"Let's just say I'm having a pretty good day today..." inquired Tsunade.

"How come?" inquired Sakura.

"Because Naruto's evil twin brother just got sent to a maximum security asylum..." explained the Fifth Hokage.

"He did?" asked the genin.

Tsunade nodded her head.

"Yes!" cheered Sakura.

"Hopefully now he'll finally need the therapy he needs...unfortunately, though everyone sees that I'm the greatest healer in the history of ninjas...I can't repair minds." explained the sannin.

"Maybe I should try practicising jutsu like that...maybe Ino could help me?" asked Sakura.

"Maybe she should...now then, why don't you go do something fun...like...break the fourth wall or something?" inquired Tsunade.

"Um...sure..." nodded Sakura.

Logging onto her computer (a device that Konohamaru had invented, interestingly enough), Sakura decided to access her account (known as CherryBlossoms) and see what the Naruto fanfic writers had to say about her.

However, she noticed a fanfic that she found to be rather strange.

"Sakura Haruno Is Evil? By Sasukeismywaifu? Hmm...something tells me that I'm not going to like this fanfic...but I guess I'll have a look anyway..." answered the kunoichi as she clicked on the fanfic.

_"Mwahahaha! Bow before me, you worms!" exclaimed Sakura as she began to wipe out the Uchiha Clan._

_"Help us!" exclaimed a Uchiha clan member._

_"Nobody can possibly stop me!" bellowed the most evil kunoichi in the universe._

_"Stop right there!" bellowed a strange voice._

_"Who the heck are you?" asked Sakura, the worst ninja of all time._

_"I'm Miko Marigold Scorpio Lee The Fifth, the greatest kunoichi of all! And I'm here to end your reign of terror!" exclaimed the heroine that was defeat Sakura Haruno._

_Immediately, she began to fire a rainbow ray of doom._

_"Oh no..." thought Sakura, right before she was killed._

_"Hooray! I did it! The day is saved!" exclaimed Miko._

_"All hail Miko!" bellowed the Uchiha Clan members as they bowed down to Miko._

"Ugh! That was the worst fanfic that I ever read in my entire life! Why would I want to wipe out the Uchiha Clan anyway? And why she want me out of the picture? Well, I might as well tell her how I feel about this story..." spoke Sakura as she began to write a review.

_"Why do you hate me so much? By CherryBlossom." said the review._

Oddly enough, she actually received a reply.

_"Sasuke is mine! Mine! By Sasukeismywaifu." read the reply._

"Sheesh...what did I ever do to her?" asked Sakura.

Curious, she decided to check her Facescroll page to see if it had been vandalized. Sure enough, there was a picture of her with a goatee and horns on it.

"Darn it...this is the third time this week..." noted the medical-nin. Hopefully she would be able to find who was vandalizing her account and beat them to a pulp.

_Meanwhile..._

As it turns out, Hinata was also editing her Facescroll page. She had uploaded a picture of herself along with the rest of Team 8, including her sensei, Kurenai.

"I hope that the rest of my teammates will appreciate it...then again, I wonder if they've uploaded that same picture too." noted Hinata.

Unsurprisingly, she had spent much of her time checking up on Naruto's Facescroll page, even though a lot of the time he simply said that he was enjoying a bowl of ramen.

According to Kiba's Facescroll page, he was taking a dog for a checkup at the veternarian...and according to Shino's...he was mastering a new jutsu.

"It's nice to see that my teammates are doing fine...though I wonder what Naruto's up too..." noted Hinata.

Suddenly, she noticed something rather strange. Apparently, some of Orochimaru's followers also had a Facescroll page.

"That's weird...I thought that they were all dead..." thought Hinata.

As it turned out, they were busy planning a strike.

"That's not good...but what are they planning this time? Are they sending an army?" inquired the kunoichi.

_Before we check on Naruto, let's check on Konohamaru..._

"It sure was nice of Naruto to check on me after being away for so long...I heard that he'd been training with Jiraiya like crazy..." noted Konohamaru.

Suddenly, he noticed something rather delicious on the floor...it was a chocolate bar!

"Yes!" exclaimed the boy.

However, when he tried to grab it, it moved a few feet from his grasp...

"Hey!" bellowed Konohamaru.

No matter how hard he tried, the chocolate bar always seemed to escape from his grasp. Nonetheless, he decided to keep following it...unaware that he was being led outside the boundaries of Konoha.

Eventually, he found himself inside an unfamiliar forest.

"Where am I?" inquired the boy.

Suddenly, a rather muscular looking teenage boy picked him off the ground.

"Gotcha, you little twerp!" exclaimed the chubby teenager.

"Help me! I'm being kidnapped!" bellowed Konohamaru.

"Will you just shut up?" inquired a red-haired teenage girl.

"Help me!" exclaimed the boy.

Immediately, Konohamaru found himself being bound and gagged using some spider thread.

"That's better." answered the red-haired teenage girl.

As it turned out, Konohamaru had been captured by the Sound Four, Orochimaru's personal bodyguards...or as some might refer to them due to their participation in the assassination of the Third Hokage...his personal death squad.

Oddly enough, they were technically supposed to be dead, since the ninja of Konoha and Kirigakure had killed them all for regularly slaughtering the innocent.

But thanks to Orochimaru's resurrection abilities...and the simple fact that the Naruto fanbase loved them despite them possibly being the most evil teenagers in the ninja history book...they had been brought back to life.

"Shame...I actually liked hearing him scream." noted a teenager wearing lipstick, who for some reason had another head sticking out the back of his neck.

"Let's hurry up and deliver him to Orochimaru already!" exclaimed the chubby one.

"Wait, can't we play a game first?" inquired a teenager who for some reason had six arms.

The red-haired girl sighed.

"What kind of game, Kidomaru? Can't you say that we're busy?" inquired the red-haired girl.

"I'm just saying...he's friends with that yellow-haired boy, right? Shouldn't we try to take revenge on him...?" asked Kidomaru.

"That sounds rather promising...what do you think, Tayuya?" inquired the two-headed teenager.

"Now that you think of it...that does sound rather promising...are you up for it, Jirobo?" asked Tayuya.

"Of course I am!" exclaimed Jirobo. "I'm going to crush that boy like a bug!"

Suddenly, the head on the back of the lipstick wearing teenager's neck woke up.

"What's this about taking revenge?" he asked.

The other ninja looked rather disturbed by this.

"For the love of the Ten-Tailed Beast, Sakon! Why do you and Ukon always have to live in each other's bodies?!" exclaimed Tayuya.

"Hey, I'm the one whose had him live inside me for years and I've never complained about it..." answered Sakon.

"That's because your brother is a sleepyhead." explained Jirobo.

"I know..." nodded the evil two-headed ninja.

"Let's write the letter explaining the game, shall we?" asked Kidomaru.

Each of them pulled out a pen, with Sakon and Ukon also pulling out a piece of paper. In just a few minutes, each of the Sound Four had written down what they had wanted to say to him.

"Let's send it to him, shall we?" inquired Sakon.

"Of course! Why do you think we wrote this letter?" inquired Tayuya.

Using a sending scroll, the letter was sent to Naruto's apartment.

"You think he'll show up?" inquired Kidomaru.

"He will if he ever wants to see his apprentice again..." noted Jirobo.

"Can't argue with that logic." answered Kidomaru.

_A few minutes later..._

Tsunade sighed. Just when her day was going well, she had won quite a bit of cash from a lottery machine. Once again something bad was going to happen...

"I'm starting to wonder if I should have let Sakura off easily...then again she has learned quite a few techniques..." questioned Tsunade.

"What do you think's going to happen this time?" asked Shizune.

"All I know is that it somehow involves Orochimaru..." explained Tsunade.

"You-know-which-ninja?!" exclaimed Tsunade's apprentice.

"Is it really so hard for you to refer to him by name?" asked the Fifth Hokage.

"He horrifies me!" exclaimed Shizune.

"Well, it's not like saying his name is going to hurt you. Anyways, where is Sakura? I think I might need her assistance..." noted the legendary sannin.

"She's right outside your office." explained Tsunade's apprentice.

"That's a relief." noted Tsunade.

_Meanwhile..._

"You just got a letter, you just got a letter!" exclaimed the postage delivery ninja.

"Not again!" exclaimed Naruto. Every time he received a letter, something bad always happened to him..even when one letter was apparently from Tsunade.

Naruto sighed, preparing for the worst. He dropped his jaw in shock when he realized who the letter was from.

Dear Complete Human Trash,

Guess what, twerp! We have your apprentice captive! In about thirty minutes from now, we're going to deliver him to our master, Orochimaru! How do you like that, you little pipsqueak?

"Not Konohamaru! He's my best pal!" exclaimed Naruto.

Then again, considering that Konohamaru was part of the Sarutobi clan, it wasn't too surprising that Orochimaru would want his hands on him as a test subject.

Before you ask, you won't need to come alone...since that wouldn't be as fun for us...we'll let you bring three of your little friends with you. Not like it would really matter though...you failed to save Sasuke last time and all...

Naruto let out a sigh of relief. He'd just get Choji, Shikamaru, and Neji and he'd probably be safe.

But don't you dare bring the Fifth Hokage with you! Or Jiraiya for that matter! Or even the sand ninja...if you do, we'll make him watch the Cosprayers! Anyways, if you want to hunt us down...well, you should know where to find us.

"Not the Cosprayers! That's like the worst anime ever made!" exclaimed Naruto.

We look forward to killing you and your three little friends. Unfortunately, Kimimaro refused to participate in one of our evil schemes...said that we'd gone off the deep end. But we'll still be able to kill you and your friends without him.

Sincerely,

The Sound Four

P.S: We brought you an hourglass so that you could see how much time you had left before we head to the Land Of Sound.

Sure enough, there was an hourglass that came with the letter. Thankfully, it was currently full at the moment...but as soon as Naruto put down the letter, the sand at the top of the glasss began to fall to the bottom.

"Oh man! This is bad! Really really bad! I've only got thirty minutes to gather my friends to stop these deranged maniacs! And to think my friends and I had such a hard time taking them down before...am I going to be so lucky this time?" inquired Naruto.

Naruto sighed. For now, he had to gather three of his friends to help save Konohamaru. Thankfully, he knew how to get Choji to help him.

Entering his house, Naruto discovered his bag of potato chips and began to devour them ravenously.

"Om nom nom nom!" exclaimed the genin.

But surprisingly, even when he ate the last potato chip, Choji still didn't show up.

"Where is he?" inquired Naruto.

Suddenly, he noticed a letter attached to the potato chip bag.

My teammates and I are currently relaxing at a local beach. So don't you dare eat my potato chips while I'm away!

Sincerely,

Choji

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!" exclaimed Naruto. According to the hourglass, he had wasted about five minutes of his allotted time looking for him. Now he had just twenty-five minutes to search for helpers.

And to make matters worse, it would likely take him too long to go to the beach and ask Team 8 to assist him...it looked like he wouldn't be able to bring Choji and Shikamaru.

"This is bad...really bad..." said Naruto.

_Meanwhile..._

"Naruto!" bellowed Choji at the top of his lungs.

"What's the matter?" inquired Shikamaru.

"He ate my potato chips! I just know it!" exclaimed the chubby boy.

"Calm down Choji...I brought you some more." explained his best friend.

"Thank you." answered Choji.

Naruto decided to head to the Hyuga residence...hopefully at least Neji would be able to help him.

"Hello?" inquired Naruto, knocking on the door.

Unfortunately, rather than Neji answering, it was Hinata. Immediately, she noticed how pale Naruto's face looked.

"Hey there Naruto! Is something the matter? You look like you're about to pass out...I personally know how that feels." asked Hinata.

"Konohamaru's been kidnapped!" exclaimed Naruto.

"What?!" bellowed Hinata.

"I tried to get Choji and Shikamaru to help me...but they're at the beach along with Ino! I won't be able to reach them in time!" bellowed the genin.

"Yeah...that reminds me...I actually gave Ino my red bikini...it brought back bad memories...and she said she had outgrown her old one..." explained Hinata.

"You did?" inquired Naruto.

"Yeah..." answered the kunoichi.

_Meanwhile..._

"Where is Ino?" inquired Shikamaru.

"She's putting on her new swimsuit..." explained Choji.

"Hey boys!" exclaimed Ino.

Shikamaru and Choji's faces turned red.

"Is something the matter?" inquired the psychic kunoichi.

"It's just that...well..." answered Choji.

"Do I look good in it?" asked the genin.

"Yes! Yes you do!" nodded the Akimichi clan member.

"That's so sweet of you!" exclaimed Ino, giving Choji a hug.

Choji's cheeks turned red...then again, they always seemed to do everything together...maybe she was in love with him?

"Maybe I should ask her on a date..." he thought.

_Back to Naruto and Hinata..._

"Where is Neji, anyway?" inquired Naruto.

"He's on a date with Tenten." explained Hinata.

Naruto tilted his head upward and screamed at the sky, much to Hinata's concern.

"Is something the matter? That was deafening!" inquired the kunoichi.

"I was hoping that I would be able to get Neji to help me...but it looks like I'm doomed!" exclaimed Naruto.

"Doomed? Wait, you mentioned something about a time limit..." explained Hinata.

"Yes! In twenty-five minutes the Sound Four are going to start delivering Konohamaru to Orochimaru himself!" bellowed the genin.

"What? The Sound Four? You mean the ninjas that trapped the Third Hokage in a barrier so that Orochimaru could assassinate him?!" exclaimed the kunoichi.

Naruto nodded his head up and down.

"That's terrible! Naruto, let me help you!" bellowed Hinata.

"What?! No! It's too dangerous!" exclaimed Naruto.

Hinata raised an eyebrow.

"I assume by "too dangerous" you mean it's too dangerous for you to go alone." answered the kunoichi.

Naruto sighed.

"Naruto, let me give you a hand. If we work together, we'll have a better chance of surviving this, you and me both." explained Hinata.

"Very well..." answered Naruto.

"Good...since we're part of the same clan I'll be able to use much of his same techniques...you said you wanted Neji, right?" inquired Hinata.

"Yes, I did." explained the Fourth Hokage's son.

"I'll also be able to use my Byakugan to search for more genin to help us...that will be useful, won't it?" inquired the kunoichi.

"Er, yeah." nodded Naruto.

Sure enough, Hinata used her Byakugan to help search for more genin to help her and Naruto.

As it turned out, Rock Lee was using taijutsu...on a dummy.

"Hey there Rock Lee! Can you give us a hand?" inquired Naruto.

"Sure...what for?" asked Rock Lee.

"We're kind of in a bad situation...the Sound Four have captured Naruto's apprentice...and in twenty-five minutes they'll start deliver him to Orochimaru!" exclaimed Hinata.

"Make that ten!" bellowed Naruto.

Hinata's eyes bulged.

"OK then, let me help!" answered Rock Lee.

"Good...do you have anything that will make you drunk? I heard that you're practically invincible when intoxicated..." asked the genin.

"Unfortunately, I don't this time..." explained the martial artist.

"Aww..." answered Naruto.

"OK...we have room for just one more ninja...who is it going to be?" inquired Hinata.

"Can we bring Sakura? I...sort of like her." explained Rock Lee.

"I don't know...the last time we had to save somebody from the Sound Four, which unfortunately we failed, by the way, Shikamaru wouldn't let Sakura participate...he felt that she would only slow us down..." explained Naruto.

"Why would he think that?" asked the martial artist.

"Well..." answered the genin.

_Sasuke and Naruto were in big, hairy trouble. They were against Zabuza Momochi...who not only had a sword that would make Link the Hylian jealous, he also had access to powerful water jitsu._

_Immediately, they realized that they were going to have to work together as a team to take him down._

_"Help us, Sakura! He's going to kill us!" bellowed Naruto._

_Unfortunately, Sakura was sleeping on the job._

_"Zzz...oh my gosh, Sasuke, you look so awesome without your shirt on...and you are the best ninja ever..." murmured Sakura Haruno in her sleep._

_"We're doomed." answered Sasuke._

_Two months later, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura found themselves facing Orochimaru, the most evil ninja in the history of ever._

_"Aah!" screamed Sakura, running away like a coward._

_"Get back here, Sakura!" bellowed Sasuke._

_"I want my mommy!" exclaimed the kunoichi._

_"My mommy's dead..." answered Naruto._

_"Well, mine isn't!" bellowed Sakura, curling herself into a ball._

_A month after that, Sakura found herself facing Gaara._

_"Don't worry Sasuke! I'll help you take him down!" exclaimed Sakura._

_Unfortunately for Sakura, Gaara used a ton of sand to attach Sakura to a nearby tree._

_"Let me go!" exclaimed the kunoichi._

_Gaara then began to use his chakra to slowly harden the sand around her._

_"Sasuke! Save me!" screamed Sakura at the top of her lungs._

"Wow, you make a rather good point..." explained Rock Lee.

"My clan considered me weak for much less than that..." noted Hinata.

"I think you're as strong as Chuck Norris." explained Naruto.

Hinata's cheeks turned red.

"Uh, thank you?" she answered back.

"So, do you understand why Shikamaru didn't want her around?" asked the genin.

"Well, yes...but she's been training with Tsunade now...I'm sure things will be different this time." explained Rock Lee.

"Your hunch better be right." noted Naruto.

Fortunately for our trio, Sakura Haruno was also nearby...she was standing outside the Fifth Hokage's building.

"I think I need some fresh air after reading that horrible story..." noted Sakura.

"Hey Sakura! We need your assistance!" exclaimed Naruto.

"My assistance?" asked Sakura.

"We need you to help us save Konohamaru! He's been kidnapped!" bellowed Hinata.

"What? He's been abducted?!" shouted the kunoichi.

"Yes!" answered Rock Lee.

"Fine...but don't think I'll be working with you just because I'm smitten with you, Rock Lee." explained Sakura.

Rock Lee sighed.

"Yes, Sakura..." answered the martial artist.

"Sheesh...why does everyone have a crush on me?" wondered Sakura.

"So, we're a foursome of ninja like you wanted, right Naruto?" inquired Hinata.

"Yeah...and according to this hourglass, our thirty minutes are just about up..." murmured Naruto.

"Then we better get going!" exclaimed Rock Lee.

"Right..." noted Sakura.

And so they ran towards the forest where the Sound Four were holding Konohamaru captive.

"You know, it's weird...the last time I faced off against the Sound Four, I was on a team full of guys..." explained Naruto.

"You were?" inquired Hinata.

"Yeah...now I'm part of an equal gender team...it feels kind of weird..." noted the boy.

"Oh..." nodded Sakura.

"Anyways, let's save Konohamaru!" exclaimed Naruto.

"Right!" nodded Rock Lee.

As they did so, Naruto began to worry about Konohamaru's safety. Would he able to save him...or will the mission end in failure like before?

These thoughts plagued him as they ran through the forest looking for the Sound Four.

_Oh no! It looks like Konohamaru has been kidnapped! It looks like Naruto and his friends are going to have to save him...but will they rescue him before the Sound Four cross the border?_

_Tune in next time on Sound Off...which oddly enough is my first Naruto fanfic that doesn't actually have Naruto's name in the title...weird._


	2. Chapter 2: Wrestling Match

Sound Off

_In this chapter, Jirobo is going to face off against one of the members of Naruto's Konohamaru Retrieval Squad...can you guess which one? It might surprise you..._

**Chapter 2: Wrestling Match**

"By the way Naruto, is there any particular reason why the Sound Four would want revenge on you? I heard that you only squared off against Kimimaro for a few minutes before backup arrived...and that you didn't actually face any of the four in combat..." asked Hinata.

"Well..." nodded Naruto.

_As it turned out, Naruto had been sent on an A-Rank Mission to retrieve classified missions from Otogakure...inevitably Orochimaru was plotting to burn the Leaf Village to the ground._

_However, before he did so, Naruto decided to do something..mischevious._

_"Tsunade pwns!" wrote Naruto on the wall using graffiti._

_"There, that'll teach them not to mess with the Leaf Village." explained Naruto, leaving the spray can behind._

_Unfortunately for Naruto, this ultimately had less than the desired effect._

_"Hey! Somebody wrote graffiti on the wall! No doubt they were from Konoha!" exclaimed one of the Sound Four villagers._

_And to make matters worse for him, Naruto had wrote his name on the spray bottle._

_"Please return this bottle of spray paint to Naruto Uzumaki...I'll give you a cookie." read the spray can._

_"Naruto must die!" bellowed the Sound Ninja._

_Immediately, they went to alert their lord Orochimaru of what he had done._

"You sprayed graffiti on one of their laboratories? What were you thinking?!" asked Sakura.

"I just wanted them to know how awesome Grandma Tsunade was..." explained Naruto.

"Speaking of which, why didn't you send Tsunade out to help you? I bet she would be able outmatch your opponents in combat." asked Rock Lee.

"The Sound Four said that if I brought somebody in that was too strong for them to fight, they would make Konohamaru watch the Cosprayers." explained Naruto.

Hinata, Sakura, and Rock Lee's blood ran cold.

"Yes...that's a very good reason, Naruto." noted Hinata.

"I'd go insane if I had to watch that garbage." explained Rock Lee.

"What the heck is up with the Cosprayers, anyway? They're freaking insane!" exclaimed Sakura.

"Uh-huh! Who even created that show?!" agreed Naruto.

"Probably someone who belongs in a mental asylum..." suggested Hinata.

Sure enough, the Sound Four were nearby, planning to deliver Konohamaru to their evil master.

"Well, it looks like that little piece of trash's thirty minutes of time are up. It's time for us to start delivering that Sarutobi boy." explained Sakon.

"Finally! That time limit took forever! Waiting for thirty minutes was such a pain..." bellowed Tayuya.

"At least now we'll be able to play a game with them..." noted Kidomaru.

"I'm going to crush them like the insects they are!" exclaimed Jirobo.

"I love it when you boast like that." noted the evil kunoichi.

Jirobo flexed his muscles in front of Tayuya...who once again felt attracted to him.

Immediately, the Konoha Retrieval Squad noticed the four.

"What? Jirobo and Tayuya are a couple now? I thought Tayuya always told him he was fat..." murmured Naruto.

"I guess they've come a long way since then..." whispered Hinata.

"Let's try taking them by surprise, shall we? That's our best shot." explained Sakura.

"Hey you! Yeah you! Give us back Konohamaru!" bellowed the genin.

Sakura facepalmed.

The Sound Four immediately glared at Naruto and his retrieval squad.

"Funny, we thought for a moment that you weren't going to show up..." noted Sakon.

"Guess what? You're not saving Konohamaru!" exclaimed Tayuya.

"Let's send Jirobo to deal with this, shall we?" inquired Kidomaru.

Jirobo raised an eyebrow.

"Didn't we lose horribly the last time we sent ourselves one by one to deal with these twerps?" inquired Jirobo.

"Well, things are different now. Thanks to our training and a bit of enchancement from our master, we're much stronger than before." explained Kidomaru.

"True..." noted the evil teenager.

"Now then, you imprison the trash in your earth dome while we deliver the Sarutobi boy to Orochimaru." commanded Sakon.

"Fine. Earth Dome Prison!" exclaimed Jirobo.

Fortunately for Sakura, she anticipated the attack and leapt out of the way causing it to miss her completely. Unfortunately for Naruto, Hinata, and Rock Lee, they did not do the same and suffered the consequences.

"Yes!" cheered Tayuya.

"Alright then...let's get going." explained Sakon.

Sakon, Ukon, Tayuya, and Kidomaru ran deeper into the forest while Jirobo stayed behind to kill Naruto and his friends.

"Dooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeee!" bellowed Naruto. Apparently, being trapped in Jirobo's Earth Dome Prison once again was making him feel claustrophobic.

"Calm down Naruto, we'll find a way out!" encouraged Hinata.

"Um, we might have a problem...I'm starting to feel like we're losing...chakra." explained Rock Lee.

"Yes...my chakra absorption abilities will do that." answered Jirobo.

"What?!" bellowed Naruto.

"Don't you remember? You said that you were trapped in this once before, remember?" asked the kunoichi.

"Oh yeah..." nodded the genin.

Frantically, Naruto tried to dig his way out of the Earth Dome Prison using a shovel. Unfortunately, the earth dome was able to repair itself, making Naruto's efforts fruitless.

"This dome is going to become our tomb!" screamed the panicking genin.

"Try to relax Naruto...I'm sure that there's a weak point somewhere." suggested Hinata.

"Yes...but where? I can't seem to remember..." murmured Naruto.

Suddenly, Rock Lee noticed something strange.

"Where is Sakura? Wasn't she with us a few minutes ago?" inquired Rock Lee.

"Maybe Jirobo missed her...I take it that's good news for us?" asked the genin.

"I hope so..." acknowledged Hinata.

As it turned out, Jirobo was waiting for Naruto and his friends to be killed by his deadly dome as he feasted on their chakra. Judging from how effective that technique typically was, it wouldn't take him too long to drain them completely.

And thanks to the upgrades he had received from Orochimaru (and a bit of training), he no longer had to keep his hands on the dome and could something fun...so long as he remained close to it.

Then again, this was more a convenience than anything else. He decided to spend his time eating some delicious chicken wings.

"Om nom nom nom nom." said Jirobo.

However, he couldn't help but shake the feeling that he was forgetting about someone...but who was it?

Suddenly, he found himself being punched in the face.

"Let my friends out of there!" demanded Sakura.

Recomposing himself, Jirobo decided to take a good look at who had punched him, and immediately began to laugh.

"That little boy brought a weak little girl with him to fight me? You've got to be kidding me..." taunted Jirobo.

Sakura immediately got angry.

"I said let my friends out of there!" demanded Sakura.

"Oh don't worry I will...once they're dead!" bellowed Jirobo.

Sakura immediately screeched in rage.

Suddenly, she picked up Jirobo and threw him towards the earth dome. She must have thrown him pretty hard, because he crashed right through the dome and through the other side.

This naturally gave Naruto, Hinata, and Rock Lee an opportunity to escape, though admittedly they would have to hurry since the opening was quickly closing.

"Ladies first!" exclaimed Naruto, allowing Hinata to jump out of the dome first.

"Thank you." answered Hinata, leaping out of the dome.

This was quickly followed by Rock Lee. Naruto immediately followed...

...only to get stuck.

"Guys, a little help here!" exclaimed Naruto.

Hinata immediately pulled Naruto out of the dome so that he wouldn't get crushed...though he fell on her in the process, causing her cheeks to turn red.

Naruto helped Hinata to her feet.

"So, what should we do now that we've escaped from the dome?" inquired Rock Lee.

The genin then remembered that Shikamaru had typically left a teammate behind to deal with a member of the Sound Four while the others continued to pursue them...since they were at a time limit, that was probably a good choice of action.

"I suggest we fight each of the Sound Four one on one...that's what Shikamaru did." explained Naruto.

"But which one should we choose? If we make a bad choice, we're all going to suffer for it." noted Hinata.

Suddenly, they noticed that Jirobo was preparing a rock to throw at them.

"Heads up!" he taunted.

Immediately, Naruto, Hinata, and Rock Lee got into evasive manuevers...

...but this wasn't neccessary, because no sooner did Jirobo throw the boulder, Sakura smashed it with her bare hands.

"Hey there Sakura...we're deciding who gets to fight which member of the Sound Four so that we can catch up to Konohamaru." explained Naruto.

"Oh...well then, let me deal with this one!" exclaimed Sakura.

"Wait, you?!" exclaimed Naruto.

"He won't stop making me angry...he keeps saying that I'm a weak little girl." explained the medical-nin.

"Darn right!" bellowed Jirobo.

Sakura facepalmed.

"Oh...you have a pretty good point there." acknowledged Naruto.

"Besides, I have super strength like he does." continued Sakura.

"Yes, I've experienced that first hand." noted Naruto.

"Be careful, Sakura!" warned Rock Lee.

"Take care of yourself!" continued Hinata.

"Don't worry, I will...unlike Naruto here." noted the kunoichi.

Naruto sighed. He really shouldn't have caught the Sound Four's attention.

"Let's get going!" exclaimed the genin.

Naruto, Hinata, and Rock Lee left Sakura to destroy Jirobo so that he wouldn't assist the rest of the Sound Four in their crazy plans to deliver Konohamaru to Orochimaru.

As they did so, Sakura decided to do a bit of fourth wall breaking.

"What? Did you think I was going to face Tayuya? Sorry, but after that big catfight with Ino, that's not really how I roll." apologized Sakura.

Suddenly, Jirobo punched Sakura in the face.

"Yeowch!" exclaimed Sakura.

Jirobo let out a laugh.

"Hey! I was talking to the reviewers! Cut me some slack, will you!" bellowed Sakura.

"Oh? You were? Alright then...I'll do some fourth wall breaking of my own...speaking of breaking, I'm going to snap this weak little girl like a twig! You better believe it!" exclaimed Jirobo.

The kunoichi responded by kicking her opponent right in the stomach.

"Aaugh!" bellowed Jirobo.

"By all means, feel free to keep calling me weak...every time you do that, I get to beat the stuffing out of you!" exclaimed Sakura.

"It's not like you're as strong as us. Why do you think we were chosen to be Orochimaru's bodyguards?" inquired Jirobo.

"Good point." noted the kunoichi.

Immediately, the two of them started to block and parry each other's blows...ultimately, it was pretty clear that they were getting nowhere.

As such, Jirobo decided that it was time to raise his power level up a notch.

"Well this is an embarrassment...it looks like I'm going to have to activate the first stage of my seal." explained Jirobo.

"Your curse seal? That doesn't sound good..." murmured Sakura.

Oddly enough, she had noticed that there was a strange marking on his right arm a few minutes ago...it was shaped loosely like a fist.

"Not to you it's not." explained Jirobo.

Suddenly, strange markings began to appear on his body.

"Uh-oh..." thought Sakura, realizing that she was now facing a more powerful opponent than before.

"Now then, where are we? Ah yes." inquired Jirobo.

Suddenly, Jirobo punched Sakura and sent her flying a few feet. Apparently, the curse seal increased his strength dramatically.

"Oww..." murmured the medical-nin.

Jirobo then smashed his fist into the ground, creating a shockwave that sent Sakura flying even further.

"Aaugh!" exclaimed Sakura.

The evil ninja laughed as he created another boulder to crush Sakura with. Unfortunately for her, this one was much bigger than the one he had tossed at her earlier...and when she tried to punch it, it only left a dent rather than it shattering.

Suffice to say, she was forced to try lifting the boulder instead...and since it was rather heavy (even for her), it wasn't going to be an easy task.

"Ha! I told you were weak, just like your little friends." murmured Jirobo.

Unfortunately for him, he had made the exact same mistake he made earlier...only this time, he had aggravated Sakura even more by insulting her friends.

Immediately, much to Jirobo's surprise, Sakura tossed the boulder at the evil teenager as hard as she could, which worked wonders for her.

"Aargh!" bellowed the teenager as he was crushed underneath his own boulder.

"Did I get him?" inquired Sakura.

For a moment, it did seem like she had bested him.

"I guess I'll be taking my leave now. My teammates need my help..." said the kunoichi.

Suddenly, the boulder underneath Jirobo began to crack.

"Never mind." answered Sakura.

Pretty soon, the boulder trapping Jirobo shattered. Curious, the kunoichi decided to take a look at her opponent, and she immediately screamed.

As it turned out, Jirobo's skin had turned red, his eyes had turned black as ink, his orange hair had grown to enormous proportions (even though he didn't have much hair earlier), and for some reason, he now had pimples on his face.

"I can't believe it...you forced me to use the second stage of my seal! Now the other members of the Sound Four are going to laugh at me..." murmured Jirobo.

"No matter...I'm going to end this...once and for all!"

Performing a blood sacrifice, an enormous golem emerged from the ground, which reached forward to allow Jirobo to ride on top. All of a sudden, Sakura found herself in big trouble.

"I know...I'll just send out my slug and help me deal with it. It'll be able to handle it...right?" thought Sakura.

Unfortunately, it appeared that Jirobo had drained enough of her chakra to prevent her from doing so. Chakra absorption was his speciality, after all.

"No!" she exclaimed.

Immediately, Jirobo commanded the earth golem to crush Sakura like...well a bug.

"Aah!" exclaimed Sakura as she narrowly avoided being squished.

The earth golem also began to throw boulders at Sakura...which she was having a difficult time avoiding due to how big they were.

Unfortunately for Sakura, it appeared that the earth golem was simply too large for her to stop it.

"Is this the end?" she thought.

Suddenly, she remembered something Tsunade had told her...the bigger her opponent was, the harder they fell.

"Maybe I could try making it collapse?" questioned the medical-nin.

Immediately, she punched the earth golem in the leg, causing it to become unstable.

"What? Keep yourself together!" demanded Jirobo.

Unfortunately for Jirobo, Sakura then punched the earth golem in the other leg, causing it to collapse...and disappear in a puff of smoke.

"What? No!" exclaimed the evil teenager. Now where was he going to get another summon? Maybe Orochimaru could bring it back to life like he brought him back?

For now, he decided to get revenge on Sakura for destroying his earth golem.

"You little brat!" bellowed Jirobo as he rushed towards the medical-nin at a surprising speed.

Caught off-guard, the evil teenager picked up Sakura and hurled her in the sky to teach her some flying lessons. She crashed to the ground in a heap.

Fortunately, she was still alive, though not without lack of trying considering how injured she now was.

"I'm not sure how I survived that...but why question my good fortune?" she thought.

Unfortunately, it appeared that her luck was now about to run out. Immediately, Jirobo started to choke the unfortunate kunoichi.

"Did you...really think...that you were going...to defeat me?!" he exclaimed.

Sakura slowly began to run out of breath.

"My comrades and I are going to deliver that little friend of yours to our master...and there's nothing that your friends are going to be able to do about it...just like they weren't able to do anything about Sasuke." taunted Jirobo.

On hearing Jirobo mention Sasuke, something snapped inside Sakura.

Suddenly, her inner self began to possess her body, causing her eyes to turn red...and in the process, she became...stronger.

Suddenly, Sakura grabbed Jirobo's arm and began to twist it. Very hard. He immediately let go of her neck.

"Gah!" bellowed Jirobo in pain.

Sakura then picked up Jirobo by said arm and tossed him to the ground.

"What are you-"

Sakura then began to punch the evil teenager into oblivion.

"No no no no NO!" he screamed.

She then finished him off with a devastating blow to the chest...which caused him to revert back to his original form.

"Impossible...I can't be defeated...by a weak little girl!" screamed Jirobo.

Realizing that she was no longer needed to assist her outer self at the moment, Inner Sakura then stopped possessing Sakura's body, causing her eyes to revert to normal.

"I don't know what came over me...wait, isn't one of your teammates a girl?" inquired the kunoichi.

Jirobo sweatdropped. How could he have forgotten about that?

"It doesn't matter that you defeated me...as I said, we're going to deliver that Sarutobi boy to Master Orochimaru...and there's nothing you can do to stop it." explained Jirobo.

"We'll see about that." answered Sakura.

With that, Jirobo was no longer with Sakura, or his teammates for that matter.

Shortly afterwards, Sakura began to pant rather heavily. She had been pretty weakened by her battle with Jirobo.

"Well, that's one member...of the Sound Four down...I need to...meet up with the others." she said.

Unfortunately, she realized that she had a problem.

"Agh!" exclaimed the genin. Apparently, her leg had been broken during her fight with Jirobo.

"This is going to make catching up with my friends so much harder..." she thought as she began to limp where her teammates went.

_It looks like Jirobo had repeated his mistakes and has been obliterated by Sakura...heh heh heh._

_So, were you surprised that Sakura got paired up against a dude? Then again for some strange reason Tayuya's the only kunoichi in a group of four...or five including Ukon...or six including Kimimaro and Ukon...or seven including Sasuke. Yeah...I'm starting to have a hard time seeing why they call themselves the Sound Four._

_Is Jirobo right? Are Naruto and his friends going to be unable to save Konohamaru? Or will they be able to save him before the rest of the Sound Four cross the border?_

_Well, you'll find more in the next chapter...of Sound Off!_

_Adios!_


	3. Chapter 3: Arachnophobia

Sound Off

_In this chapter, another member of the squad sent to rescue Konohamaru is going to face off against Kidomaru...can you guess who is it this time? It might surprise you...though admittedly this time you have three ninja to guess instead of four._

**Chapter 3: Arachnophobia**

After leaving Sakura behind to deal with Jirobo so that he wouldn't interfere with their rescue mission, Hinata remembered something important.

"Shouldn't we try to replenish our chakra? We got really drained from being inside that dome..." questioned Hinata.

"You're right!" exclaimed Naruto. "But what should we do?"

"Do you have any food? That might help us recover..." asked Rock Lee.

Curious, Naruto decided to check if he had anything that he and his friends could consume. As it turned out, there were two bowls of ramen.

"I do...but two of us are going to have to share it with each other..." inquired Naruto.

"If you want...we could share ours, Naruto." said Hinata, whose cheeks were once again starting to turn red.

"Huh? Um, sure." nodded Naruto.

And so Naruto and Hinata shared their bowl of ramen while Rock Lee devoured a ramen bowl of his own.

"This ramen is delicious...no wonder Naruto loves it so much..." thought Hinata.

Unfortunately for our heroes, they encountered something that was of their concern. Someone had placed tripwires to prevent Naruto and his friends from approaching...and they were attached to kunai.

Undoubtedly Kidomaru had placed them there to prevent our heroes from pursuing them...assuming they got past Jirobo, which they all did except for Sakura, who they had sent to battle him.

"Great...he's using his web-spinning abilities as a deathtrap now?" inquired Naruto.

"Let's be careful not to snag them then...the less injuries we receive on this mission, the better." warned Hinata.

After all, they would inevitably have to square off with the remaining members of the Sound Four if they wanted to save Konohamaru.

Fortunately, Naruto, Hinata, and Rock Lee exercised caution so that they could avoid being pierced by kunai.

However, their efforts didn't go unnoticed.

"My spider-sense is tingling..." said Kidomaru.

"You have spider-sense now?" inquired Tayuya.

As it turned out, Kidomaru had been gifted by Orochimaru with the ability to sense enemies from a distance using a sixth sense of sorts.

"Do you get all your abilities from Spider-Man?" asked Sakon, recalling a comic book he and his brother had read the other day.

"I'm his evil twin, I guess." answered the evil shinobi, even though he was personally unsure if they were actually related, though admittedly they had a striking amount of similarities despite being on different sides of the moral spectrum.

"I guess that means Jirobo is the Incredible Hulk...speaking of which, where the heck is he?! I'm sick of waiting for him..." questioned Tayuya.

"Maybe he went to McDonalds to satisfy his enormous appetite...speaking of which maybe we should go there when we're finished with the mission. I'd enjoy a Whopper right about now..." answered Sakon.

"I can't eat a Whopper...those would get to my thighs." answered the kunoichi.

"Right, of course..." nodded the two-headed ninja.

Suddenly, Kidomaru spotted our remaining heroes, and immediately threw some kunai at them. Thankfully, they ducked out of the way and getting Sakon and Tayuya's attention.

"Well, so much for sending the weakest member of our group to handle things." noted Sakon, recalling how Jirobo (despite being the physically strongest among them) was considered to be the weakest member of the Sound Four.

"That was your weakest member?!" exclaimed Hinata in astonishment, recalling how dangerous Jirobo was to the four of them.

"I know..." nodded Naruto. Why did the Sound Four have to be so strong? And he couldn't help but shake the feeling that they had some new tricks up their sleeves since his last encounter with them.

"Guess it's time for us to send our second-weakest guy...which as we all know is you, Kidomaru." said Tayuya.

Kidomaru smiled as he prepared to fight Naruto and his two remaining teammates.

"This is going to be so much fun..." he noted.

Tayuya, Sakon, and Ukon immediately fled with the barrel containing Konohamaru to continue their mission.

Shortly afterwards, Kidomaru used his webbing to trap Naruto and Hinata in a cocoon. Hinata's cheeks once again turned red when she realized just how close they had been tied together.

"I've been blushing a lot today..." she noted. Then again, she had been crushing on Naruto for years.

Shortly afterwards, itsy bitsy spiders began to swarm out of the cocoon and started consuming Naruto and Hinata's chakra, much to their horror. For a moment they began to wonder if they were trapped inside a horror movie.

"Aah! This is worse than when we were abducted by my brother!" he exclaimed, recalling the deathtrap his evil twin had set up for them.

"Uh-huh!" nodded Hinata in agreement. She began to wonder if she would look at a spider the same way again if she survived the mission.

Immediately, Hinata began to use her Gentle Fist to break them free...unfortunately, due to Kidomaru's enhancements since Naruto's previous encounter with him, and the fact that Hinata wasn't quite as good at cutting through chakra as her cousin was, she was having a hard time.

"Oh no..." she thought.

But where was Rock Lee? It simply wasn't like him to flee from the battlefield like a coward, even after Gaara crippled him during their bout in the Chunin Exams.

Their question was answered when suddenly he grabbed onto the cocoon and ripped it in half, allowing Naruto and Hinata to break free.

"Thanks...but how did you get so strong?" inquired Naruto.

"I did some training with my sensei." explained Rock Lee.

"Oh." nodded Hinata, remembering who his jonin teacher was.

Suddenly, Kidomaru tossed two kunai at Rock Lee...but he was able to catch them with his hands and throw them back at him, which unfortunately he ducked.

"I think it's apparent who we should sent to deal with this guy." said Naruto.

Hinata nodded in agreement. Surely Rock Lee would be able to handle the situation, right? Then again Sakura hadn't returned to them when they had sent her...at least not yet anyway. Was she doing OK?

"So, Are you ready to fight him?" asked the genin.

"Yes I am!" Rock Lee exclaimed, saluting Naruto and Hinata with respect.

"Be careful out there...the Sound Four are very strong...then again you should probably know that considering who we faced earlier..." said Hinata.

Rock Lee nodded as Hinata and Naruto went to pursue the remaining two (or three) members of the Sound Four.

"Gosh, I'm all alone with Naruto now...now I'm really starting to feel bashful..." she thought.

Thankfully, she didn't faint like she had done in the past, since she had a mission to accomplish and that would be the worst time to do so.

Immediately, Rock Lee started trying to karate chop Kidomaru, who narrowly avoided it thanks to his spider-sense. He created some armor using some spider silk to protect himself...but his opponent shattered it with one punch.

It quickly became apparent to him that facing Rock Lee in hand-to-hand-combat (despite him having six hands) was out of the question, and decided that it would be best to fight him for a distance. That was his speciality, after all.

Immediately, he began to run away from Rock Lee.

"Where did he go? Did he go up a water spout somewhere?" inquired Rock Lee.

His question was answered when Kidomaru shot a kunai at him.

"Wait a minute...he's trying to snipe me!" realized the martial artist.

"I just love hunting ninja like this..." thought the spider-man.

Immediately, it became apparent that if he was going to defeat Kidomaru, he was going to have to hunt him down.

"Where is he?" thought Rock Lee.

Suddenly, Kidomaru shot a glob of webbing at Rock Lee to slow him down...though thankfully this didn't hinder him much.

The evil spider-man began to laugh...which alerted the martial artis to his presence...and he ended up with a punch to the face when Rock Lee leapt towards him.

"Aargh!" he bellowed. Unfortunately for Kidomaru, he wasn't nearly as capable of dealing with punishment as he was at dishing it out, though admittedly thanks to his training he was a tad bit more resilient than before.

Unfortunately for Rock Lee, Kidomaru then fled deeper into the forest.

"Let's take this game to the next level, shall we?" shouted the arachnid of a ninja.

"This isn't a game!" bellowed the martial artist in retaliation.

Kidomaru immediately activated the first stage of his seal. All of a sudden, Rock Lee was having a harder time avoiding his attacks.

"He's somehow managed to increase his accuracy..." thought Rock Lee.

Suddenly, a net of spider webbing fell on top of the martial artist, who frantically began to try to break his way free.

Thankfully, he succeeded, though not before being stabbed in the arm with a kunai.

"Gah!" exclaimed Rock Lee.

Kidomaru smirked in satisfication, though unfortunately it appeared that the martial artist was still hunting him down.

It was that particular moment he decided rather than toss kunai than before, he decided to create something more...deadly.

"Let's see what I can build, shall we?" he thought to himself.

Sure enough, by chewing spider silk in his mouth like bubblegum, he was able to create a few arrows to shoot Rock Lee with...which he did by also creating a bow.

Sure enough, his aim was true, and he managed to pierce Rock Lee in the shoulder.

"Gah!" he exclaimed, clutching his arm in pain.

Unfortunately, Rock Lee once again managed to catch up with him, this time kicking him in the chest. At this point, Kidomaru realized that he was going to have to go full power.

Activated the second stage of his curse seal, Kidomaru's hair turned white, his skin turned a light shade of red (much like Jirobo before him), horns appeared on his forehead, and for some reason, he grew a third eye.

Immediately, Rock Lee began to feel very freaked out. Apparently, Kidomaru had some sort of cursed seal that he could use to increase his power...which explained the strange markings that he had noticed on him a few moments earlier.

Kidomaru once more retreated deeper in the forest, This time, the martial artist was having a heck of a time dealing with his kunai attacks, which actually seemed to home in his direction now.

In fact, a few of them managed to pierce his skin, causing him to grimace.

"I just love a challenge..." Kidomaru thought. For some strange reason, he simply couldn't help but toy with his opponents. It was simply so much fun. Then again, so did Sakon...though his brother forced him to end a fight quickly before too long. He wondered if he was jealous of him.

This time, Kidomaru chose to summon his personal summon to deal with Rock Lee. In this case, it was Kyodaigamo, a giant spider which was pretty good at completely encasing his opponents in spider webbing for him.

And to make matters for Rock Lee, thanks to a few enhancements from Orochimaru, the spider was now very poisonous...

In other words, if he was bitten, it would only be a matter of time before he died.

Cutting open the egg sac that Kyodaigamo had helpfully provided, itsy bity spiders began to rain on top of Rock Lee, draining some of his chakra and wrapping him up with spider silk.

"Get them off me!" bellowed Rock Lee, furiously trying to shake them off.

Fortunately for the martial artist, he was able to squash the spiders before they did him too much harm. Unfortunately for Rock Lee, he now had to face the wrath of their mother, who wasn't too happy with him for slaying her offspring.

Immediately, Kyodaigumo jumped from her spider web and next to Rock Lee, who began to feel very nervous.

"Um, hey there...you don't mind that I squashed some of your kids and all, do you? I mean, you have so many and all..." asked Rock Lee.

His question was answered when the giant spider bit him in the arm.

"Gah!" bellowed the martial artist.

Fortunately for Rock Lee, he was able to slay Kyodaigumo using his martial artist techniques...but the damage had been done.

And to make matters worse for the martial artist, rather than exploding into smoke, Kyodaigumo instead exploded into spider webbing to trap him.

This allowed Kidomaru to strike his enemy with a giant arrow he had been producing in the meantime, thus wounding Rock Lee.

"Ugh..." murmured the martial artist. Already the spider's poison was making him feel dizzy.

Assuming that Rock Lee would no longer be able to fight him and that he had made his last stand, Kidomaru then began to leave so that he could pay his colleagues Tayuya, Sakon, and Ukon a visit.

"Well, that was a good game...but I have to get going." he murmured.

Unfortunately for Kidomaru, the martial artist chose to pursue him...immediately, his spider sense went off...

...but it was too late for him, as Rock Lee attacked him with several martial strikes, causing him to collapse to the ground.

"Game over..." he murmured, realizing that he had been defeated.

"No more treating this like this is a game!" bellowed the martial artist.

"This reminds me of my battle with Kimimaro and that Hyuga kid...curse you...and curse Konoha..." answered Kidomaru as he passed away.

"What does he have against Konoha?" questioned Rock Lee.

Unfortunately for Rock Lee, at that particular moment, he began to feel some pretty nasty side-effects from the poison that he had received from Kidomaru's summon earlier. He began to wonder if he was going to be KIA.

Might Guy would undoubtedly mourn his passing...and so would Tenten and Neji too...assuming that he didn't survive the mission.

Immediately, he began to pass out.

But fortunately for Rock Lee, it turned out there was a medical-nin ready to help him...it was none other than Sakura, who had limped her way so that she could search for her friends.

Realizing that Rock Lee had been poisoned thanks to the fact that she had read some medical notes that Tsunade had given her the other day, Sakura immediately began to extract poison from his body.

"Let's hope that this works..." she thought.

Thankfully, it did, and Rock Lee would live to see another day. However, it became apparent that Sakura was now having to give him mouth-to-mouth if she wanted him to help her look for her friends.

The kunoichi sighed as she began to do something she didn't want to do...or did she?

"Why am I having mixed feelings about this? I'm not in love with him...am I?" she thought. Was some strange part of her somehow attracted to Rock Lee? Then again he had always treated her like a gentleman even when it became apparent it wasn't exactly love at first sight between the two of them.

"Hmm..." wondered Sakura as she began to resucitate Rock Lee. Noticing that he had been pierced with a giant arrow, she also began to mend his injuries.

Eventually, Rock Lee regained consciousness. As soon as he saw Sakura, his cheeks turned red.

"Sakura, is that you?" he asked.

"Er yeah, it's me...I have to admit, fighting that big guy really did a number on me..." noted Sakura, gasping for breathe as she did so.

"Sorry to hear that." answered Rock Lee.

"I think he...broke my leg." explained the kunochi.

"Should I try carrying you bridal style then?" asked the martial artist.

Sakura sighed.

"Fine..." answered the kunoichi, though part of her actually looked forward to that. Maybe it was her inner self?

However, as it turned out, there was a problem with that plan.

"Gah!" exclaimed Rock Lee.

"What's the matter?" inquired Sakura.

"I think my arm is broken..." explained the martial artist.

"What a coincidence..." noted the kunoichi. The Sound Four sure clobbered them both, didn't they?

"Can you heal me like you did earlier?" asked Rock Lee.

"Sorry, I'm out of chakra..." apologized Sakura.

"Oh...I'll let you keep up with me then." nodded the martial artist.

"Thanks..." answered the kunoichi.

And so Rock Lee went to look for Naruto and Hinata with Sakura limping beside him.

_Meanwhile..._

Tsunade was feeling rather concerned. Not long after she had won about ten thousand ryo at gambling, she had received a whopping five MIA reports from ANBU.

Apparently, Konohamaru, Naruto, Hinata, Rock Lee, and her apprentice Sakura had all gone missing.

"Where have they all possibly gone? Are they throwing a party somewhere or something?" she inquired. Then again it wasn't her birthday today.

Did they go off on a mission without her permission? She recalled how Naruto and Hinata had not too long ago gone off on a "top-secret mission" that was actually a deathtrap set up by Naruto's evil twin brother.

She decided that maybe she should try looking for them.

Immediately, she sent for Might Guy and Kurenai to see if they knew anything. Curiously, Kurenai mentioned that Hinata was at home when she disappeared. Also curiously, Might Guy also mentioned that Rock Lee had apparently been training when he vanished.

Suddenly, Tsunade also remembered that Naruto typically received a letter when bad things happened in Konoha. Apparently her scoring a victory in gambling wasn't the only bad omen.

Curious, she decided to fetch for some package delivery ninja to see if they had delivered anything for Naruto. Sure enough, they mentioned him receiving a letter from Orochimaru's henchmen.

"Orochimaru's henchmen?! Out of all the people that could send him mail...was it a hate letter?" questioned Tsunade.

She immediately became concerned when she noticed that the letter was apparently from the Sound Four...and that they had abducted Konohamaru so that they could Orochimaru could use him as a human test subject.

"Orochimaru and his sick experiments..." murmured the Fifth Hokage.

According to the letter, Naruto was allowed to bring three of his friends to help him save Konohamaru...and that if he tried sending Tsunade to help him, they would make him watch the Cosprayers.

"The Cosprayers? Really?" inquired Tsunade, noting how horrible that particular anime was.

Immediately, it became apparent what she needed to do.

"Get the ANBU to find Naruto and his friends immediately! We need to rescue Konohamaru and fast!" exclaimed the Fifth Hokage.

Kurenai and Might Guy nodded as they went to fetch the ANBU to help Naruto and his friends.

"First he murders the Third Hokage...and now he's going after his grandson...is there any moral limits as to what he'll do?" thought Tsunade.

Then again, probably not. She had heard numerous rumors that Orochimaru was pure evil...which she personally thought were all true, though admittedly many of them were outlandish such him being the son of the Devil or that he was the Devil himself.

There was a reason why people wouldn't say his name nowadays.

"I sure hope my honourary grandson and his friends are going to be safe...and that Orochimaru won't succeed in his horrible plans this time..." she thought.

_Rock Lee has defeated Kidomaru...but unfortunately his arm has been broken in the process, so he won't be able to carry Sakura with him. Tough luck._

_In the next chapter, Naruto and Hinata will be facing off against Tayuya...or at least one of them will, anyway._

_Oh, and the ANBU will start looking for Naruto and his friends...since you know, Tsunade's noticed that they're all missing._


	4. Chapter 4: Face The Music

Sound Off

_In this chapter, Naruto and Hinata will pursue Sakon, Ukon, and Tayuya once more...and one of them will stay behind to face Tayuya, leaving the other to face Sakon and Ukon. Well, isn't that just dandy?_

_Ironically enough, this is going to be the fourth chapter. Heh heh...I'm assuming you're seeing the irony in that?_

**Chapter 4: Face The Music**

After leaving Rock Lee behind to deal with Kidomaru (much like Sakura has been sent to deal with Jirobo), Naruto and Hinata continued pursuing Tayuya, Sakon, and Ukon so that they could rescue Konohamaru.

However, Naruto immediately began to feel rather worried. Would he able to make it before the remaining members of the Sound Four crossed the borderline? That was not something that he looked forward to.

Curious, he decided to ask Hinata if she could use her Byakugan to see how close they were to Otakagure. Time was not on their side on this mission.

"Can you use your Byakugan to see if you can spot them, Hinata? I'm worried about how much time we have left..." said Naruto.

Hinata nodded. Sure enough, Tayuya, Sakon, and Ukon weren't too far from them...however, they weren't far from the border anymore.

"I think we should be able to catch them, but we need to hurry." explained Hinata.

Sure enough, Naruto got an idea. Immediately, he performed a blood sacrifice so that he could summon Gamabunta.

"Whoa!" bellowed Hinata in astonishment. This was clearly the largest toad that she had seen in her entire life. Personally she wondered if she should sign a contract with a specific type of animal. That would surely be useful...right?

"Yes, I know, he's a big guy." said Naruto. It was always nice to have a large animal to boss around, even if he didn't always listen to you.

"Hey there Naruto...what do you want? I was in a fly-eating competition with my arch-rival..." explained Gamabunta.

"Your arch-rival? Is he a frog?" inquired Naruto curiously.

"Yes, he is. How did you guess?" asked Gamabunta.

"Just wondering. Anyways...would you mind if I brought a friend to ride with you this time?" asked the genin.

"Is your friend a girl?" asked the giant toad.

Naruto nodded while Hinata sweatdropped.

"Is she attractive?" inquired the toad.

Naruto and Hinata both blushed.

"Er, yeah...I think so!" exclaimed Naruto.

"Alright then. She can come aboard." nodded Gambunta. Apparently he was as lecherous as his summoner.

Naruto and Hinata boarded the frog and began to pursue the remaining members of the Sound Four. Thankfully, Gamabunta was rather fast, so it wouldn't be long before the duo caught up with them.

Sure enough, Tayuya, Sakon, and Ukon began to hear some very loud ribbiting, much to their concern.

"Is there a frog somewhere?" inquired Tayuya curiously. Why was its croak so booming? Something was clearly wrong.

"Maybe we can dissect some frogs after we're done with our mission?" asked Sakon.

"It's really...loud." questioned the kunoichi.

Suddenly, Gamabunta leapt in front of Tayuya, Sakon, and Ukon, causing them both to jump in surprise.

Immediately, Naruto began to glare at them. Apparently he wasn't too happy with them that they had abducted his apprentice.

"Alright, give me the barrel and my toad won't devour you!" demanded Naruto.

"Can't we just use his tongue to grab the barrel and hop away on it?" inquired Hinata, stating the simple solution.

"Oh, right. Silly me." realized the genin. Personally he wondered why he didn't summon him before back when all the members of the Sound Four (excluding Kimimaro himself) were present.

But no matter. As Naruto instructed, Gamabunta grabbed the barrel with his tongue, and began to leap away from the Sound Four.

Naruto began to hear muffling sounds coming from the barrel. Konohamaru was in there alright.

"It looks like we've succeeded on our mission, Hinata!" exclaimed Naruto.

"My father is going to be so proud of me." noted Hinata.

Nonetheless, Naruto couldn't help but shake the feeling that he was tempting fate...but he decided to count his chickens before they hatched anyway.

"Konoha, here we come!" exclaimed the genin.

Tayuya's response was to use some very nasty language that would make most shinobi question if she was actually a girl.

And to think that she enjoyed eating toad legs too. She had in fact packed some toad legs with her in case she was hungry later. Well, she knew Jirobo was going to be, anyway.

Suddenly, she got an idea. Perhaps the mission wasn't a failure after all. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out some toad legs and began to bite into them.

"Mmm, tasty." she murmured.

As soon as Gamabunta realized that toad legs were being consumed, he immediately froze in horror.

"What the-why are you stopping, Gamabunta? We need to get back home!" exclaimed Naruto.

"They're eating toad legs!" bellowed Gamabunta.

"What?!" inquired Hinata. What exactly were they planning?

"Say Sakon, why don't you join me?" asked Tayuya.

"Why should I?" inquired Sakon, not understanding what was so great about toad legs.

Tayuya punched Sakon in the shoulder and whispered into his ear.

"Oh...alright then. This toad legs taste great! I could eat them all day!" bellowed Sakon.

Gamabunta began to scream in horror.

"Clever girl..." thought Naruto, starting to realize what Tayuya was up to.

"Say, that giant toad sure had enormous legs...maybe we should try snacking on him." noted Tayuya.

"Yes...that would be...great..." answered Sakon half-heartedly. He simply could not understand why Tayuya loved toad legs so much.

At that very moment, Gamabunta decided it was time to head back to his swamp.

"Naruto, you and your girlfriend are on their own! I can't deal with these monsters!" bellowed Gamabunta.

With that, he disappeared in a puff of smoke, causing Naruto, Hinata, and the barrel containing Konohamaru to collapse to the floor.

"No!" screamed Naruto as he fell on his face.

Sakon and Ukon then seized the opportunity to run towards the barrel and attach it to Sakon's back before running away to Otakagure to deliver it to their master.

"We were so close!" bellowed Hinata as she helped herself and Naruto back to their feet. Apparently some things were simply too good to be true.

"I take it you want me to take on these two by myself?" asked Tayuya.

Curiously, her question was unanswered.

"I'll take that as a yes." noted the kunoichi as she pulled out her flute.

"Are you going to trap us like Jirobo and Kidomaru did?" asked Naruto.

"Nah, I'm just going to fight you like a man." answered Tayuya.

"But you're a girl." noted the genin.

"Your partner fights like a man, doesn't she?" inquired the kunoichi.

"Er, yeah." nodded the boy.

Immediately, he prepared to fight Tayuya...only to realize that he had a problem.

"How am I supposed to bring myself to hit a girl?" he thought. It simply wasn't in his nature to do so.

"What am I going to do?" he pondered to himself.

Getting a bit...desperate, Naruto thought that since he was a hero then maybe he would be able to win over a villainess. It was worth a try at least, wasn't it?

"Hey there...um...you look nice. I, er, think that you're a very pretty woman." said the genin.

"I'm a teenager actually." answered Tayuya.

Naruto sweatdropped. For some strange reason, the Sound Four were all younger than they looked.

Hinata frowned. Was Naruto not interested in her anymore? Did he simply think that she was a friend of his? Why did all love have to be one-sided?

Unfortunately, this ultimately didn't do him any good.

"Who do you think I am? Some sort of Bond girl? Nice try...but I'm going to crush you like a tin can." answered Tayuya.

Naruto gulped. That didn't sound too pleasant.

"Now then, what should I do with you? I know...I think I'll throttle you!" exclaimed the kunoichi.

Immediatley, she grabbed onto Naruto's neck and started choking him.

"Gack ack!" bellowed Naruto, who was rapidly losing oxygen.

Fortunately for our hero, Hinata came to his defense. Immediately, she punched Tayuya in the face.

"Agh!" bellowed Tayuya.

This allowed Naruto to break free from her iron grip...which was actually fairly comparable to Jirobo's.

"Naruto, let me handle her! You go and save Konohamaru! It's up to you now!" exclaimed Hinata.

Naruto frowned. It looked like it was time for him to say goodbye to Hinata...hopefully not forever.

Before he did so, he decided to do something to show how much he cared about her.

Immediately, he gave Hinata a great big hug.

"Um, thank you." answered the kunoichi.

Naruto then went to pursue Sakon and Ukon, leaving Hinata to enter a catfight.

"Aww, isn't that sweet? Too bad you're never going to see him again! Well, not until you're both dead, anyway." bellowed Tayuya.

Hinata entered a fighting stance.

Realizing that Hinata was a close-range combatant (and knowing that she would be more effective at long-range), Tayuya decided to keep her distance from Hinata while she summoned her three doki to fight her in her place.

Using her flute to command her doki, chakra-devouring worms began to flow out of their mouths straight towards Hinata.

Fortunately, due to the fact that Naruto had hugged her earlier, Hinata was full of energy, and such she didn't have an overly hard time avoiding them.

"Gah! Hold still, why don't you!" exclaimed Tayuya.

Unfortunately, she couldn't avoid them entirely, and one of them managed to drain some of her chakra.

"Gah!" bellowed Hinata.

Immediately, she tried to close in on Tayuya, but unfortunately the three doki blocked the way. Apparently, she was going to have to fight her way towards her.

Fortunately, her Gentle Fist proved to be effective against them...not only that, but due to the fact that their eyes and ears were covered, she was able to manipulate them into striking each other.

"Ugh! Why do they have to be blind and deaf?" inquired Tayuya as she noticed what Hinata was doing. If only she was able to summon demons that could use all five of their senses.

Eventually, it wasn't long before they started vanishing into smoke.

"Oh c'mon!" she bellowed. Now she was going to have to ask Orochimaru for some replacements.

Eventually, all three of them were gone, and Hinata was able to approach the kunoichi. Apparently the Hyuga clan member was stronger than she thought.

Tayuya sighed, realizing that she was going to have to deal with Hinata herself. Then again, that was the best way to get a job done right.

"I guess I'm going to have to use my curse seal..." noted the evil shinobi.

Activating her curse seal, black marking began to appear on her body, increasing the potency of her genjutsu.

This had the added benefit of her being able to use a genjutsu to set a trap for Hinata.

"I feel like Willy Wonka giving children a tour of the chocolate factory..." murmured Tayuya as she trapped Hinata. Ironically, she found Oompa Loompas to be creepy.

Then again, maybe she could sing a song about all the nasty things she was going to do to her opponent and her apparent boyfriend. Surely there would be so many possibilities.

"Oh no!" exclaimed the kunoichi, realizing the bad situation that she was in as the genjutsu took hold.

All of a sudden, the unfortunate Hyuga clan member began to feel like the Wicked Witch of the West...or like a snowman in the spring, or like a ninja taking a lava bath.

To make a long story short, Tayuya was making her believe that she was melting into a puddle. She immediately tried to calm herself, though considering how nasty the genjutsu was, that wasn't going to be an easy task.

"Calm down Hinata...you're not really melting...this is just a genjutsu...right? Heh heh...heh." spoke Hinata nervously.

And to make matters worse, Hinata was suspended in midair by some rather sturdy ropes, so she couldn't simply slap herself awake.

"How am I supposed to break free?" she thought. Unfortunately, she didn't have the strength of Chuck Norris, so she couldn't simply snap them like a twig.

Suddenly, she remembered something important. Apparently, Hyuga clan members could use their Byakugan to help counteract jutsu...

"Byakugan!" exclaimed Hinata.

Sure enough, this proved to be helpful indeed, since this caused the imaginary ropes to disappear and slowed down the imaginary melting.

"That's better...now then..." said the kunoichi.

Immediately, she started to slap herself awake, which gradually restored her back to her senses.

"Phew..." thought Hinata.

"What? You escaped the jutsu? How is that fair!" exclaimed Tayuya in astonishment.

"Yeah...you can blame my Byakugan for that." answered the Hyuga clan heiress.

Suddenly, the Hyuga clan member ran towards the kunoichi and started pummeling her with her Gentle Fist techniques.

"Aargh!" exclaimed Tayuya.

Immediately, the evil kunoichi grew desperate, and activated the second stage of her cursed seal. Sure enough, her eyes turned black, horns sprouted out of her head, her hair turned pink, and her skin turned brown. In the process, her hat was shredded.

"Darn it? Why does that keep happening?" inquired Tayuya. Now she was going to have get a replacement, just like her Dokis.

"Whoa..." murmured the kunoichi.

Unfortunately, for some strange reason, her transformed state wasn't nearly as horrifying as the transformations of her comrades...in fact, some ninja said that her cursed seal state actually made her look adorable.

"Ugh..." she thought. But at least now she would finally be able to defeat Hinata.

And thanks to some training (and enhancements from Orochimaru), Tayuya had a rather nasty jutsu to go with her second stage of her cursed seal.

Immediately, she let out an enormous, deafening scream that was very painful to Hinata...especially considering that she was at close-range.

"Gah!" exclaimed the unfortunate kunoichi.

Tayuya smiled. It looked like she was finally going to win at last. Immediately, she gave Hinata a killer bearhug, using a similar tactic Jirobo typically used on his many victims.

She had to admit, it was nice that even though she was a long-range fighter, she also had access to Jirobo's super-strength.

After all, as much fun as it was to trap her opponents in genjutsus and drain their chakra, this typically didn't kill her enemies, though admittedly this still rendered them heavily unconscious.

"Gah!" exclaimed Hinata as she began to suffocate.

But much like Jirobo before her, Tayuya made a fatal mistake.

"Maybe after this I can try using my genjutsu on your little boyfriend. I'm sure he would enjoy melting into a puddle." noted the kunoichi.

Suddenly, Hinata grabbed Tayuya's arms and twisted them, causing her to scream in pain.

"Aah!" bellowed the kunoichi as she was forced to release Hinata.

She then picked Tayuya up by the neck and started banging her head against a conveniently-located tree...

"This...is...for...Naruto!" bellowed Hinata. Apparently even she could be deadly if she was pushed too far.

Eventually, Tayuya ended up with a fatal head concussion.

"Jirobo, is that you?" inquired the kunoichi as she left the world of the living.

"Ugh...that fight was exhausting..." explained Hinata.

Unfortunately, as a side effect of being hit with such a nasty genjutsu, Hinata began to feel very dizzy.

"Maybe I should I have covered my ears when I noticed her playing on that flute? Then again...this was kind of my first time fighting her." noted the chunin.

Eventually, she drifted into unconsciousness.

Fortunately, she was promptly woke up a few minutes later by her friends.

"Hinata, wake up!" demanded Sakura.

Curious, Hinata woke up from her nap.

"Are you alright?" asked Rock Lee.

"Yeah, I think so." answered the kunoichi. Personally, she didn't think that she had in her to defeat Tayuya...but ultimately she was wrong.

Apparently, Sakura and Rock Lee had also succeeded in their battles with Jirobo and Kidomaru respectively...though they seemed to be moderately injured. Hinata noticed that Sakura was limping with her right leg, and that Rock Lee was clutching his right arm.

"Er, did you break your leg? And your arm?" asked Hinata.

"Yes, we did." nodded the kunoichi. Apparently, Sakura was going to need crutches while Rock Lee was going to need an arm sling.

"My sympathies..." sympathized the Hyuga clan heiress.

"Did you break any bones too?" asked the kunoichi.

Curious, Hinata decided to check herself to see if she was injured. Oddly enough, she seemed to be fine.

"Phew..." murmured the kunoichi.

However, she suddenly began to feel dizzy.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Hinata as she collapsed to the floor.

Apparently, being exposed to that powerful genjutsu had given her a concussion of sorts.

"Ugh..." murmured the kunoichi.

"Should we look for Naruto? He's still out there..." suggested Sakura.

"Yes! Yes!" bellowed Hinata.

"Let's go look for him then." nodded Rock Lee.

_Meanwhile..._

"If I know the Sound Four, they'll inevitably be taking Konohamaru to their hideout in Otakagure." noted Tsunade as she approached to the forest leading out of Konoha.

"Be careful! The Sound Four are very dangerous!" warned Shizune.

"Yes, I know that already." nodded the sannin.

"I was talking to ANBU." explained the kunoichi.

"Oh." acknowledged the Fifth Hokage. She had to admit, they had some pretty nasty collaboration techniques. She in particular didn't look forward to being trapped inside a giant purple barrier that would burn anything it touched.

She hoped that the ANBU would be ready for the horrors awaiting them.

"Make sure that Naruto and his friends make it out in one piece...and that Orochimaru doesn't make it out in one piece." explained Tsunade.

"Don't mention his name!" bellowed one of the ANBU members in horror.

The legendary sannin sighed. People simply wouldn't refer to Orochimaru by his name after what he did to the Third Hokage.

"I shudder to imagine what's inside the Grim Reaper's digestive system..." noted the sannin. Nothing pleasant by the looks of it.

Immediately, the ANBU went to search for the missing ninja.

"I hope that Naruto made it..." spoke Tsunade.

"I'm sure he'll be fine. He's got the nine-tailed fox inside him!" exclaimed Shizune.

"That doesn't mean he's invincible, you know. It's not like he has the Ten-Tailed Beast insdie him." answered the Fifth Hokage.

"True..." acknowledge her apprentice sadly.

"You know it's weird...I heard that a lot of people have been writing fanfics about the Sound Four...no matter how many people they kill, their fans still think that they're sweet and lovable." noted Tsunade.

"Really?" inquired Shizune.

"Yeah...and to think that they abducted the Third Hokage's grandson not too long ago...what do people see in them?" said Tsunade.

"They must be crazy or something..." questioned the kunoichi.

Tsunade nodded her head in agreement. At least they would hopefully be able to rescue him so that Orochimaru wouldn't succeed in one of his many twisted plans.

"The less test subjects he has, the better." noted the legendary kunoichi.

_Well, all that's left now is Sakon and Ukon...after that, Naruto will be able to save his apprentice once and for all. Hopefully, anyway. Wouldn't want this story to have an unhappy ending like the Sasuke Retrieval Arc. Why did Sasuke have to betray Konoha?_

_So until then, have a good one...and I hope that you're liking this story so far...even if my Naruto stories are getting less comical and more action-paced._

_Adios!_


	5. Chapter 5: Two Against One

Sound Off

_In this chapter, Naruto will face off against Sakon and Ukon...which you could probably tell already by process of elimination. Will he able to save Konohamaru from being used like a frog in a biology class?_

_Then again, his friends were able to defeat their opponents...so why not him?_

**Chapter 5: Two Against One**

Sakon smiled to himself. In just a few minutes he would cross the border...and then he would be home free. Orochimaru would be so proud of him...along with his brother.

Of course, he wouldn't be able to take sole credit for it, since the other members of the Sound Four would likely pulverize him for doing so. Sure, he was the strongest member of the bunch other than Kimimaro himself, but that didn't mean he wasn't as stronger than them all combined like he was.

But no matter. Hopefully Orochimaru would be pleased at their success.

But as it turned out, there was a ninja still pursuing him and his brother even after everything they had done to stop Naruto and his friends.

"Hey you! Yeah you! You've got nowhere left to hide now!" exclaimed the genin.

Ukon sighed. It looked he was going to have to dirty his hands a little for this mission. And to think he and his brother always saved themselves for last. Then again, at least there was only one of them.

"What?! One of them's still alive?! How is that fair?" he murmured. He was personally rather baffled that they would be able to make it this far. Then again, he did enjoy a challenge.

Sure enough, there was Naruto, ready to rescue his friend Konohamaru. And this time, Sakon and Ukon had no-one left to send after him while he continued heading towards Otakagure.

It looked like he and his brother were going to have to make a last stand. Personally he thought that his comrades would be a bit more...competent.

"Well well well. It looks like we're going to have a final battle over who gets to keep your little friend." noted Sakon.

Sure enough, Ukon woke up from his slumber. Apparently he wanted to participate in the fight against Naruto as well. It just wouldn't be the same to fight Naruto one-on-one.

"Give me back Konohamaru! I mean it!" bellowed Naruto, who had a rather furious expression on his face.

"Are you ready to finish this once and for all, brother?" inquired Ukon.

"Yes, brother, I am." nodded Sakon.

"Who are you talking to?" asked Naruto curiously.

"Did I mention that I'm a twin?" inquired the default leader of the Sound Four.

"Wait, you're a twin?" asked the genin curiously.

"Yes...my brother has been living inside me for years." explained Sakon.

"What?!" exclaimed Naruto.

Sure enough, Naruto noticed that there was a head sticking out of the back of Sakon's neck. He immediately began to scream in horror.

"Yes, that tends to do this to people...even more than our cursed seal, curiously enough." answered Sakon.

"Why do we share the same cursed seal, brother?" inquired Ukon.

"It was Orochimaru's decision, not ours. Why don't you ask him?" inquired Sakon.

"Oh, right." acknowledged his brother.

"Now then...where were we? Ah yes. Abject humilation." answered the evil shinobi.

Setting the barrel containing Konohamaru gently on the floor, Sakon and Ukon began to rush towards Naruto, trying to punch him in the face and kick him in the stomach.

As they did so, Konohamaru began to wonder what was happening. Was Naruto in some sort of fight to the death? He personally wished that he could cheer him on...but was he was still bound and gagged by Kidomaru even though he had passed away not too long ago.

Unfortunately for Naruto, due to the fact that Ukon was living inside hm (and could send out his limbs out from anywhere on his brother's body), he essentially had an extra pair of arms and legs, which made him rather dangerous in hand-to-hand combat.

"These two could give Rock Lee a run for his ryo." thought Naruto as he desperately tried to avoid Sakon and Ukon's attacks.

And to make matters worse, Sakon and Ukon were fast. Really really fast. He simply could not avoid being punched or kicked by them a few times.

At one point, they kicked up a whirlwind with their feet to help them take down Naruto, which juggled him into the air and made him feel very dizzy. He personally found this to be fairly ironic considering that wind was his speciality.

"Ugh..." murmured Naruto. Apparently it was time to send out the clones.

Performing a hand seal, several different clones of himself appeared to help him deal with Sakon and Ukon.

"Are you ready to save Konohamaru?" inquired Naruto.

"Sir yes sir!" bellowed the Naruto clones, saluting Naruto with respect.

"Gee, I didn't know that they thought I was a general." questioned the genin. Then again one of his friends had the mind of a general...even though he was really lazy.

"Oh would you look at that brother? He's sent for reinforcements...you think that's going to do him any good?" said Ukon.

"Probably not." answered Sakon. Then again, the last time he had to deal with reinforcements, he ended up with a ton of stitches on his face from where Kankuro had stabbed him and his brother with his puppets.

He personally began to wonder why Lord Orochimaru ever decided to betray the Sand Village. Was it something that they said? Or was he some sort of evil hedonist that liked doing things for kicks.

Then again, he always seemed to get a thrill out of killing innocent people, just like he did...though maybe not to the same extent.

Anyways, it was time for him to stop thinking to himself and to deal with Naruto and his army of clones. Surely they wouldn't be too difficult to beat, now would they?

Unfortunately for Sakon and Ukon, the clones began to swarm them, and pretty soon they found themselves being dogpiled. They simply wouldn't stop coming.

"Get them off me!" bellowed Sakon, frantically trying to shake the clones off. It seemed that for every clone they punched or kicked into a puff of smoke, two more came to replace them. Why did his opponent have to summon so many of them? It was like being swarmed by a member of the Aburame Clan.

"What do you I think I'm trying to do, brother?" answered Ukon.

Naruto smiled. So far he was doing pretty well in this fight. Nonetheless he wondered how long this was going to last.

Eventually, Sakon and Ukon detached themselves to help them deal with the clones. But even so, this wasn't enough.

"I take it you want us to activate our cursed seal? I never really understood why you hate it when I toy with my opponent so much." inquired Sakon.

"Every time you do that, the fight takes forever. Believe me, anything that will hasten this struggle is welcome. I'm growing tired of it already." answered Ukon.

"Fine..." nodded Sakon. Then again, he personally enjoyed activating his cursed seal too. It always felt so refreshing to have fresh chakra pump through their bodies.

Sure enough, black markings began to appear on Sakon and Ukon's bodies. All of a sudden, they began to cut through Naruto's clones like butter.

After they were finished with the clones, Sakon and Ukon took turns withdrawing into each other's bodies to heal their injuries...which didn't take long at all.

"This isn't good..." thought Naruto. It appeared that their regeneration abilities had undone the injuries he had inflicted upon them. What a waste of chakra.

For a moment, he considered summoning Gamabunta to help him deal with the twins...but he then remembered that he had been scared away earlier and likely wouldn't be too helpful towards him. Was he a toad or a chicken?

"Oh man..." thought the genin, who was already starting to reach the end of his rope.

And as a side-effect of activating the first stage of the cursed seal, Sakon and his brother were even faster than before. Once again, Naruto found himself being punched and kicked in the face...and unfortunately, it was now two against one.

Well technically, he was already outnumbered...though before he technically only had to face one opponent rather than two.

Deciding to use a jutsu that was a bit...desperate...Naruto decided it was time to get Kurama to assist him.

"Hey there Kurama...you wouldn't mind giving me a hand, would you?" inquired Naruto.

"Funny, just last week I dreamt about using you as a chew toy." answered Kurama.

"I'm kind of in a bad situation here...these two maniacs are trying to kill me." explained Naruto.

"Who is he talking to?" asked Sakon.

"Does he have a twin brother also?" inquired Ukon.

"Oddly enough, I actually do have an evil twin brother...though I don't actually talk about him much." explained Naruto, knowing his evil his twin brother was. He really did deserve to be in an insane asylum.

Sakon and Ukon raised an eyebrow. If he wasn't talking to his twin brother sticking from the back of his neck...then who was he referring to?

"Can you help me out? I'd really appreciate it...I know we're not exactly the best friends in the world...but can we bury the hatchet for a second?" asked Naruto.

Kurama sighed. If only letting Naruto get killed wouldn't cause him to die too. Why did he have to be so annoying? Then again, considering how badly the villagers treated him after realizing that a monstrous beast inside his body, maybe Naruto had it worse than he did.

Suddenly, a tail of chakra sprouted out of Naruto's body.

"What is he up to?" questioned Sakon.

Suddenly, Sakon and Ukon noticed that Naruto seemed a bit more...deadly. All of a sudden the twin brothers were having a harder time striking him...Naruto even managed to land a blow on Sakon.

"Does he have a cursed seal too or something?" questioned Sakon.

"I hope not." nodded Ukon.

Wanting the kill rather than be killed, Kurama decided to activate another tail from Naruto. In the process, he started to become rather...violent.

"I'm going to kill you!" exclaimed Naruto.

"Not if we kill you first." taunted Sakon.

Unfortunately for the two teenage villains, it appeared that Naruto was growing stronger than stronger. He even managed to fire a Rasengan at the two, which they just narrowly avoided.

It looked like it was time for the duo to go full-power.

Activating the second stage of their cursed seals, Sakon and Ukon grew horns from their heads, their skin turned red, their hair turned white, and black armor began to appear on one of their arms each.

"Finally, now we can get this battle over with." answered Ukon.

"I have to admit, this is the funnest battle I've had in quite some time...it's a shame that all good things must come to an end." questioned Sakon.

"Yeah yeah yeah. Let's just hurry up and deliver this barrel to Lord Orochimaru so that I can take a nap. I'm pretty sure he's counting on us." answered his brother.

"Fine..." nodded the evil shinobi. As always, his brother was an enormous sleepyhead. What did he even dream about, anyway?

Sprouting even more tails, Naruto prepared to fight a rasengan to end the battle once and for all.

"Yahhh!" bellowed Naruto as he did so. For some strange reason, using powerful attacks always made him want to scream...why did they make him so angry? Did using so much chakra make him feel like someone was insulting his deceased parents?

But unfortunately, Sakon and Ukon had a summoning jutsu they could use to counteract Naruto's Rasengan.

Right after Naruto fired the ball of chakra...Sakon and Ukon summoned the Rashomon to defend themselves.

CRASH!

Fortunately for Sakon and Ukon, the Rashomon was able to shield them, but just barely considering how dented it now was. Curiously enough, the Rashomon now appeared to have a band-aid on it.

"Where did that band-aid come from?" asked Sakon. He never recalled ever needing band-aids considering he could just withdraw into his brother's body to heal himself.

"Don't ask me, brother." answered Ukon.

Unfortunately for Naruto, he had spent a lot of chakra in that attack...and his tails began to disappear.

"Uh-oh!" he exclaimed.

"Way to go, Naruto. Now we're both going to die!" exclaimed Kurama.

"It's been a nice life." he answered.

Suddenly, the Rashomon began spewing kunai towards his mouth. Naruto frantically began to take cover.

"At least I managed to dent that giant metal gate before I went down..." murmured Naruto. And to think Orochimaru was apparently able to summon three of them at once...would he stand a chance when he finally went to rescue Sasuke?

Unfortunately, the Rashomon began to repair itself. Apparently, Orochimaru's enhancements to the twin brothers allowed their gate to do so.

Naruto sighed. He had spoken too soon.

Sakon and Ukon both smiled. It looked like this battle was over and that their mission was going to be a success...though they personally wondered where their comrades had hopped off too. Were they off playing bingo?

However, Naruto still had a few tricks up his sleeve...for some strange reason, he couldn't help but wonder what would happen if he tried throwing a paper bomb inside the Rashomon's open mouth.

"Let's give this a shot, shall we?" inquired Naruto as he pulled out a paper bomb.

"Wait, what is he-"

Suddenly, Naruto tossed the Rashomon into his mouth...causing it to begin to shake uncontrollably.

"This can't be good for anybody..." murmured Ukon.

"What the Ten-Tailed B-"

Suddenly, the Rashomon exploded spectacularly. Naruto began to wonder if the explosion could be seen from a mile away.

Fortunately for Ukon, he was able to leap out of the way in time. Unfortunately for Sakon, he was caught in the explosion and didn't live to survive another day as he let out an enormous scream.

"Brother!" bellowed Ukon, realizing what had happened.

"Well, that's one of them down...though I guess I feel sorry for him." noted Naruto.

"Who cares about those two?" inquired Kurama.

"Each other?" answered the genin.

Unfortunately for Naruto, Ukon was very mad at the genin for what he had done to his twin. Immediately, he ran towards him and started trying to pulverize him with his taijutsu.

However, now that Sakon was gone...fighting his brother was now a lot...easier.

Immediately, Naruto began to summon more clones of himself to fight Ukon...and pretty soon, he was on his knees.

"Yes!" exclaimed the genin. It looked like victory was his.

Unfortunately, Ukon still had one last trick up his sleeve.

Suddenly, the evil shinobi began to merge with Naruto's body.

"What are you up to?" inquired Naruto.

"Did you think I was limiting to inhabiting my brother's body?" asked Ukon.

"Um..." answered the genin.

"In just a few minutes now...I'll be able to destroy you completely from the inside...anyways, now where was I? This is for my brother, you slimy little..."

"Yeah, I think I understand how your jutsu works." nodded Naruto. How was he supposed to stop him now?

Suddenly, Naruto accidentally dropped a kunai on his foot...

"Gah!" exclaimed the two of them.

Suddenly, the genin realized something important...apparently, any damage he inflicted on himself would affect Ukon as well.

Fortunately for Naruto, thanks to his accelerated healing ability, it didn't take long before the injuries the kunai had accidentally inflicted on himself disappeared.

Unfortunately for Ukon, in order to accelerate his healing, he had to inhabit the body of his brother...and since he had been caught in a horrible explosion...

Frantically, Ukon began to remove himself from Naruto, but by then...it was already too late.

"Gah!" exclaimed Ukon as he collapsed to the ground.

"Ugh..." murmured Naruto. Though thankfully his injuries were quickly undone by Kurama's healing abilities, he was still feeling rather exhausted from poking himself with a kunai so many times.

He personally began to wonder if he would end up with some self-inflicted scars later.

"Is this the end of...the Sound Four?" inquired Ukon as he joined his brother in the afterlife.

Naruto began to celebrate. Now there was nothing to stop him from retrieving Konohamaru once and for all. It looked like had won...

Wait, didn't the Sound Four have a leader by the name of Kimimaro?

"Oh wait, that's right...Kimimaro didn't want to participate in one of their crazy revenge schemes..." noted Naruto.

Opening the barrel containing Konohamaru, he immediately found himself being hugged.

"You came to save me!" exclaimed the apprentice, happy to be a free man.

"Well, you shouldn't simply thank me...you should thank my friends." answered Naruto.

"Your friends? Where are they?" inquired Konohamaru.

Naruto sighed. All of a sudden, he was starting to feel worried about his friends. He had no idea what had happened to them. Did they win against the Sound Four? Did they get abducted by aliens? Was Orochimaru attacking Konoha?

"I miss them already..." he murmured.

Suddenly, he began to hear someone approaching.

"Huh? Is someone there?" inquired Naruto.

"Naruto!" bellowed Hinata.

"Hinata?!" exclaimed the genin.

Sure enough, there was Hinata, who was running straight towards him.

"Hinata? You're alive! Thank goodness!" exclaimed Naruto.

"Yeah...I'm glad that we all made it..." answered the kunoichi.

"Sakura and Rock Lee made it OK?" inquired the genin.

"Yes, they did." nodded Hinata, who was panting for breath.

Sure enough, Rock Lee and Sakura arrived on the scene...though Sakura was limping and Rock Lee was clutching his arm.

"I'm glad that you're all safe...to be honest, I was worried about bringing you all into this." answered Naruto.

"What matters is that we're all safe now, right?" inquired Sakura.

"Yeah, I guess so." answered the genin.

"By the way, I found something strange...using my Byakugan I noticed that the ANBU were looking for us..." explained Hinata.

"What? They are?" inquired Rock Lee.

"Yeah...I think it's time for us to head home." nodded the kunoichi.

"That's what I was going to do anyway." said the genin.

"I hope Lady Tsunade is proud of us." said Sakura.

"I'm sure she will be. We managed to rescue Konohamaru, didn't we?" nodded Naruto.

"Yes...yes we did." answered Hinata.

And so Naruto, Hinata, Rock Lee, and Sakura began to head home to celebrate their triumph. They had defeated the Sound Four and Konohamaru was saved. All that was left now was to report to Lady Tsunade and tell them that their secret mission was a success.

_And The Sound Four are no more! Well, except for Kimimaro...but you're probably not going to be seeing him until later._

_Also, Konohamaru has been saved! Hooray! I guess all that's left now is to explain what happened to our protagonists...but I'll tell you that in the next chapter...of Sound Off!_

_And yes, that will be the final chapter...phew, I have to admit, this must be my longest Naruto story yet...though it's definitely not the longest story I've ever written, I can tell you that._

_Adios!_


	6. Chapter 6: Mission Accomplished

Sound Off

_Well, you probably want a break from the action after all those battles Naruto and his friends had with the Sound Four...well, consider it done._

_So, sit back and watch the final chapter. I hope that you enjoyed this story because I enjoyed writing it._

**Chapter 6: Mission Accomplished**

As soon as Naruto, Hinata, Rock Lee, and Sakura returned home to Konoha along with Konohamaru, their friends and family were very excited to see them.

"Hooray!" cheered the citizens of Konoha.

"You are the best ninjas ever!" they yelled.

"You defeated the Sound Four!" they bellowed.

"Yeah...we kind of...did." answered Hinata modestly. Who would have thought that they would be able to pull off such a mission?

Sure enough, the ANBU were happy to see them as well, as they had been rather worried as to where they had gone. It wasn't every day that they received an MIA report, especially considering they typically kept an eye on Konoha's citizens.

"Where were you? I can't believe we received so many MIA reports in one day." inquired one of the members.

"We were on a secret mission...for the good of Konoha." answered Naruto.

"A secret mission?" inquired another of the members.

"Yeah..we were kind of...in a hurry...so we weren't able to tell you." explained Sakura.

"Well, at least you managed to return the Third Hokage's grandson back to us." answered the ANBU.

"There you are!" exclaimed Tsunade.

Sure enough, the Fifth Hokage had been looking for the five of them as well. Apparently she was very happy to see them back.

"Lady Tsunade!" bellowed Sakura, immediately recognizing her ninja tutor.

"So...you managed to defeat Orochimaru's personal bodyguards, did you? I have to admit that you're impressed...though I would have liked to think that you would have at least told me you were going..." said the Fifth Hokage.

"We were kind of...in a hurry." explained Naruto, recalling how they had to chase the Sound Four in order to stop them.

"They were delivering me to the ninja-that-must-never-be-named!" exclaimed Konohamaru.

Many of the ANBU gasped in shock. You-know-which-ninja was behind all this? Then again he always seemed to be ultimately responsible for everything that went wrong in Konoha. Why did he hate Konoha so much?

"Oh. Well, nonetheless, hopefully life will be easier now that some of his top supporters are gone...then again, he always seems to be recruiting more ninja by the day..." explained Tsunade.

"Doesn't he still have Kabuto and Kimimaro to help him do unspeakable things?" inquired Hinata.

"True..." noted the Fifth Hokage. Why did Orochimaru have so many followers? Cowardice? Conscription? Blackmail? Bribery?

"Can't he resurrect the dead using one of his jutsus?" asked Rock Lee, who began to worry that their hard work would ultimately be undone.

"Well, he can't keep doing that forever, can he? Besides, I'm not actually sure if that jutsu is permanent..." asked Tsunade.

"Probably not...he'd likely have to sacrifice some of his followers if he wanted to use the jutsu repeatedly. Then again, he never really seems to care about them." noted Naruto. Why did Orochimaru have no sense of compassion?

And to think he used to be a hero to his village...why did he have to fall so hard?

"Anyways, congratulations...you've just accomplished an A-Rank Mission." explained the Fifth Hokage.

"We have?" inquired Hinata in astonishment. Personally she wasn't sure that she would be able to make it that far. Then again, they did have a medical ninja on their side.

"Mm-hmm...I'm sure that the citizens of Konoha will be proud of you...especially Asuma Sarutobi. Personally I think you should feel proud of yourselves." said Tsunade.

"Right...personally I'm just glad that we managed to succeed in our mission this time...I miss Sasuke Uchiha." nodded Naruto.

"Me too..." nodded Sakura. For some strange reason, no matter how many horrible things he did, she still thought that he was sweet and lovable.

"I'm free! I'm free!" bellowed Konohamaru in happiness.

"I'm sure you're happy about that." noted the genin.

"Yes I am! I feel like I can conquer the world!" exclaimed Naruto's apprentice.

"Please try to refrain yourself from doing that. We're already fighting against the ninja-that-must-never-be-named as it is." suggested Sakura.

"What Sakura said!" exclaimed Rock Lee. Apparently, despite his obvious bravery, he was as horrified of Orochimaru as most of the citizens in Konoha.

"I wasn't being serious." answered Konohamaru. Granted, he did probably have the technology to do so considering his strange ability to invent new things on the fly.

"Anyways, do you need to go to the ninja hospital? You all look rather...beat up." said the Fifth Hokage.

Naruto nodded his head.

"Yeah...going on an A-Rank Mission will do that to ninja." acknowledged Hinata.

"Yeah, that would be a good idea." noted Sakura.

"I think some of our bones are...fractured." explained Rock Lee.

"Are any of you crippled?" inquired Tsunade, recalling Rock Lee's fight with Gaara and how badly it had ended for him.

"No, I think we're fine. Relatively, anyway." answered Hinata.

"I'm glad that none of us were permanently injured." acknowledged Naruto.

"Alright then. ANBU, take these four to the ninja hospital." ordered Tsunade.

"Ma'am, yes, ma'am!" exclaimed the ANBU Force.

And so, the ANBU agreed to take Naruto and his friends to the hospital so that their injuries could be mended. Sure enough, Sakura found herself wearing crutches and Rock Lee found himself wearing a sling on his right arm.

"At least our friends will be able to sign them until we get better...then again, I could probably just heal myself." noted Sakura.

"Maybe Might Guy will sign my cast?" inquired Rock Lee.

"I suppose I will." answered the kunoichi.

"Yes!" bellowed the martial artist.

"I suppose it's the least I could do." noted the medical ninja. Surprisingly enough, she actually didn't have problems hanging out with Rock Lee so long as he didn't flirt with her so much.

Then again, Rock Lee would probably be able to defend himself if she ever tried punching him in the face. Then again, he did seem to be a gentleman...something which she wasn't sure she could say about Naruto. At least Hinata seemed to like him.

Naruto found himself requiring some stitches since he had cut himself with a kunai so that he wouldn't have to watch Ukon destroy him from within. That would have been just plain horrid. Thankfully, he didn't have to spend a lot of time in the hospital.

"Personally I think my evil twin would be happy if I winded up getting KIA on the mission...then again, he's in the minority." noted Naruto as he went to look for his friends.

Curious, he decided to ask one of the doctors where Hinata was so that he could pay her a visit. For some strange reason, he couldn't help but shake the feeling that he should visit her first.

Like Naruto himself, she had not been required to stay at the hospital for long, thanks to a helmet Konohamaru had built for her, much to his relief. She in fact was standing right outside the hospital.

"Konohamaru built a helmet for her? That was awfully nice of him." inquired Naruto.

"She said that it was the least he could do after helping her save his life." explained the doctor.

"Oh." acknowledged the genin. He personally wondered if he should thank him for that.

And so Naruto went outside the hospital to look for his friend Hinata.

Curiously enough, Hinata did not seem to be significantly injured like her companions were. As the doctor had explained, she was wearing a helmet that curiously made her loosely resemble Megaman.

"Hey there Hinata! I heard that Konohamaru built a helmet for you...does it do anything cool?" exclaimed Naruto.

"Yes he did...he said that it would help me get over the trauma I experienced fighting Tayuya. Melting into a puddle wasn't exactly fun, even if it technically never happened to me." explained Hinata. Who would have thought that genjutsu could be so nasty?

"Oh...what does it do?" questioned the genin.

"Oh...it lets me go to a dream world whenever I want...Konohamaru told me not to use it too much or I'll start getting dizzy." noted the genin.

"Too much of a good thing?" inquired Naruto.

"Yeah, pretty much." asked Hinata.

"So...is that dream helmet helping you relax?" asked the genin.

"Yep, it sure is." noted the kunoichi.

Suddenly, Hinata began to giggle.

"What's so funny?" inquired Naruto.

"Let's just say that I only need one thing to keep me happy..." explained Hinata.

_"So, are you ready to test out my new helmet?" inquired Konohamaru._

_"As long as it doesn't explode in my face...I think I'll be ready to go." explained Hinata._

_"If you want I could test it out on myself first..." explained the boy._

_"No, you've gone through a lot today as it is." noted Hinata as she put on a helmet._

_Hinata was standing in the dream world. Hopefully she would be able to relax after that battle she had with Tayuya. It sure wasn't fun being trapped in her genjutsu._

_Suddenly, Naruto appeared out of nowhere._

_"Hey there Hinata! You're my best friend in the whole world!" bellowed Naruto._

_"I'm not sure how you got there Naruto...but thank you." acknowledged Hinata._

_"I'm going to TP the Hokage Monuments!" exclaimed the genin._

_"Have fun with that." nodded Hinata._

_And so Naruto left to TP the Hokage Monuments._

_"Heh heh, Naruto's such a prankster." she thought._

_She was glad that Konohamaru was such a boy genius...this totally made up for zapping her with that OC Ray Gun earlier. Then again, good had ultimately come out of that too._

_Removing the helmet, Hinata found herself back in reality._

_"Did it work?" inquired Konohamaru._

_"It sure did! You think we should share it with our friends?" inquired the kunoichi._

_"Sure, why not." nodded Naruto's apprentice._

_Personally she began to wonder what Naruto began to dream about. Then again, it was probably ramen._

"You only need one thing to keep you happy huh?" inquired Naruto.

Curiously, he couldn't help but shake the feeling that Hinata was referring to himself. Then again, it was just a hunch.

"By the way, did you know that Sakura and Rock Lee agreed to sign each other's casts?" inquired Hinata.

"They did?" asked Naruto.

"Yeah, I guess they're buddies now." explained the kunoichi. "Then again, Sakura did ultimately save Rock Lee's life."

"She did?" inquired the genin curiously.

"Yeah...he got poisoned by Kidomaru's giant spider summon...but Sakura pulled through for him." explained Hinata.

"Well, she did save us from that death trap that my evil twin brother and his accomplice set up for us." noted Naruto.

"Yeah...she's come a long way, hasn't she? I heard that she used to slow you down..." inquired the kunoichi.

"Yeah...I guess her training with Tsunade finally paid off." noted the genin.

"Well, she did take out Jirobo." answered Hinata, recalling how they had left her behind to deal with him.

"Mm-hmm. Anyways, if you excuse me I'm going to head back to Jiraiya now. He said that he had a jutsu he wanted to show to me..." said Naruto.

"See you later, Naruto!" exclaimed Hinata.

"Goodbye, Hinata! We're friends forever!" bellowed the genin as he left.

Hinata smiled, happy that Naruto cared so much about her.

_Now for the epilogue..._

Naruto went back for training with Jiraiya, growing stronger and stronger by the day. Eventually, Jiraiya began to wonder if he would ultimately surpass him. Then again, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The sooner he defeated Orochimaru and saved Sasuke's skin (literally), the better.

Hinata went back to the Hyuga household, where her father (known by the name of Hanabi Hyuga) told her how proud he was for accomplishing such a mission and that she deserved the title of being the heiress to the Hyuga Clan. Personally, Hinata wondered if Jiraiya would allow her to train with Naruto.

Rock Lee eventually recovered from having his arm broken (thanks to some help from some medical ninjas), and was ready to go out on another mission. This time, he decided to go on a B-Rank Mission to see if Sakura would be allowed to go with him, which she was.

Sakura agreed to become Rock Lee's medical ninja during the mission. Sure enough, they were now friends...though the kunochi wondered if she would eventually have to perform mouth-to-mouth again.

Konohamaru continued to build inventions to assist Konoha. Who would have thought that he would become a child prodigy?

The Sound Four are still dead...though you probably knew that already. Then again, maybe they would return like they did before.

The other citizens of Konoha resumed their daily lives.

_And this story is over! Of course, I just might make a Naruto fanfic considering how insanely popular Naruto is on ...assuming you want me to, of course._

_By the way, I included a bunch of references to other works in this story as a form of humor...some of them should be obvious...some of them, not so much. If you want you can tell how many you found...I'm sure I've included at least one in each chapter._

_So have a good one! Peace!_


End file.
